Austin is reworking its long-term housing strategy after reporting that just 11% of new affordable homes were built in areas the city identifies as offering greater opportunity.
Here's what to know
The November 5 City Council vote put the Strategic Housing Blueprint update in motion, Community Impact reported.
The new blueprint will set affordable housing development and preservation goals for 2028–37.
With its planning period ending in 2027, Austin's current blueprint combines dozens of homebuilding and housing-stability policy objectives with numerical targets. Adopted in 2017, it called for 135,000 new homes, with 60,000 set aside for lower-income residents.
Progress tracking and reporting will change alongside the housing targets for the coming 10-year period. Austin Housing staff described the council vote as clarification of the replacement plan's policy priorities.
More background
As of 2024, just 11% of new affordable homes were built in high-opportunity areas, according to Community Impact. The original blueprint targeted 25%.
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Austin Housing staff are revising the city's outdated Opportunity Map as part of the planning process. Planners use the map to steer affordable development toward locations it considers better suited for new housing.
Major investments in transit and displacement prevention are among the changes since 2017 that planners are considering as they prepare the next strategy.
What's being done?
Population and job trends will also help shape the updated blueprint, alongside data on local housing supply and demand.
Planners will also factor in how city growth and new building projects could affect those goals over time.
The plan will address preserving affordable housing already in place alongside new construction. The blueprint will also cover funding partnerships between public agencies and private investors, and update how the city approaches preventing displacement.
Young people, students, survivors of domestic violence, and people experiencing homelessness are among the groups council member Ryan Alter wants the blueprint to address with housing strategies, according to Community Impact. He also called for a scope that extended outside Austin, greater attention to sustained housing assistance, and a closer look at the use of city-owned property.
Austin Housing Principal Planner Rachel Tepper discussed the need to account for the city's changing circumstances when she spoke to council members in October.
"We're here today as we end our 10-year horizon. We're approaching 2027 and we know that conditions have shifted including major transit investments, major investments in anti-displacement," Tepper said.
Where can I learn more?
Rising housing costs are pressuring Austin residents as the city rethinks its housing goals.
• Austin residents warn that rising housing costs could price their children out of the city.
• Boston's housing plan cuts its building target and adds tax breaks as rents climb.
• Greater Boston builders say affordable-unit rules stall housing, while Boston refuses to change course.
• Massachusetts is directing $18.2 million to Cambridge projects that would create 162 affordable homes.
• Massachusetts is 15.6% toward its housing goal as its housing chief backs site review reform.
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