More affordable housing could be coming to Austin if the Travis County Commissioners Court approves a
resolution later this month that will look to partner with the city of Austin and Austin ISD on developing projects collaboratively.
At its meeting on Tuesday the Commissioners Court decided to postpone a vote on a resolution to its Nov. 15 meeting.
A joint subcommittee with representatives from Travis County along with the city of Austin and AISD are looking at how to provide
more affordable housing options to area residents, including AISD teachers, lower-income staff and families.
The school district has an active request for proposals with
properties identified that it is interested in redeveloping, and the joint subcommittee has been looking at not only land but also buildings that could potentially serve as resources, said Sherri Fleming, Travis County executive for health and human Services.
Here are some of the things the court wants to see incorporated into the final resolution:
- Families will be a focus. Commissioner Margaret Gomez, who serves on the joint subcommittee, said she wants to make sure families who have students attending AISD schools are included in the group of people the efforts will serve. “It all kind of came about with the fact that AISD is losing students, and it’s because of a lack of affordable housing,” she said.
- A map of public lands owned by each entity should be provided. Commissioner Ron Davis said he had some concerns about the resolution, including that the public lands have not been listed or included on a map for the public, and the transportation and national resources department, which oversees capital improvement projects for the county, should be involved throughout the process. “Right now there is an effort to look at what the next bond election is going to look like for Travis County, [including] our capital improvement projects, and it is a hefty load. Those particular proposed projects that need voter approval, will they be in line with what we’re doing now? Right now we don’t know where those public lands are,” he said. “As you go forward with this, I think those particular areas need to be disclosed.”
- The resolution should spell out what constitutes affordable housing. Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said he would like to see more clarity outlined in the resolution on whether affordable housing refers to low-income housing or simply housing that is something area residents and staff can afford. For example, the average AISD teacher makes an annual salary of $48,000, according to the school district. Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said she would like to clarify a part of the resolution that states some families are moving out of Austin into other communities, but at least three of those other communities—Manor, Del Valle and Pflugerville—are also located within Travis County. She added the average teacher salaries for those districts should be mentioned in the resolution as well for comparison.
Travis County has already identified properties in Travis County that are suitable for collaborative affordable housing development, Eckhardt said.
“All of our governmental entities should be collaborating on this type of land,” she said.
Fleming said once commissioners approve the resolution there will be a long list of legal, financial and property use considerations that staff must identify and explain in detail to each governing body to move forward in a way that is prudent to the community.
“The devil of this project is in the details,” she said.
