Austin News

The City of Austin has released metrics gauging the community’s progress towards affordable housing goals.

The City of Austin's Housing and Planning Department partnered with HousingWorks Austin to release scorecards tracking progress towards the city’s affordable housing goals set forth in the 2017 Strategic Housing Blueprint. 

The blueprint identifies five community values to inform goals outlined in the blueprint including: preventing households from being priced out of Austin; fostering equitable, integrated, and diverse communities; investing in housing for those most in need; creating new and affordable housing choices for all Austinites in all parts of Austin; and helping Austinites reduce their household costs.

Goals outlined in the blueprint include the creation, preservation and equitable development of affordable housing units across Austin for a range of incomes.

“HousingWorks Austin consulted many community partners to track development patterns in Austin since the adoption of the Strategic Housing Blueprint,” Nora Linares-Moeller, executive director at HousingWorks Austin, said. “Austin has made some progress toward meeting goals to provide housing affordable to households earning 60% Median Family Income and above. However, much work remains to address the significant need for more housing dedicated to families experiencing chronic homelessness and those earning below 60% MFI.”

Overall, the scorecards show that Austin is making progress towards the 10-year goals adopted in the blueprint, but there is still work to be done. According to the city, achieving these goals require leveraging existing funding sources, increasing funding opportunities in the future, aligning affordability goals with existing regulations and programs, expanding with nonprofit and private-sector partnerships, and strong community commitment.

The scorecards will be presented to the Planning Commission on Jan. 26 and to the City Council Housing and Planning Committee on Feb. 23.