Austin “is facing an unprecedented housing crisis,” city council says

Austin "is facing an unprecedented housing crisis," city council says

The City of Austin needs at least 135,000 additional housing units in the city over the next decade to meet housing needs, according to a resolution.

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin recently determined that there is a need to build at least 135,000 additional housing units over the next decade. A large amount of these units will need to be classified as affordable housing units. This is written in a resolution sponsored by Natasha Harper-Madison.

"We’re critically, critically short on housing. If our own city-sanctioned regulations are adding to the high cost of housing in Austin we need to know that, and we need to fix it," said Harper-Madison.

The resolution was discussed at a work session Tuesday and is expected to be voted on this Thursday. It directs the city manager to analyze the cost of producing housing in the city, and figure out how to cut those costs and red tape.

"In huge parts of Austin, it's a cakewalk for a home builder to take a property, demolish one small house and replace it with one big house. If that same builder wanted to replace a small house with four or six or eight units, that process could involve rezoning, subdivision, site planning," said Harper-Madison.

This red tape is especially hurting smaller mom-and-pop home builders, says Nick Quijano, vice-president of the Austin Infill Coalition. "The permitting process is one of the challenges," he said.

The process can drag for months and can get expensive. Council Member Alison Alter agreed Tuesday. "When we have conversations with developers, and they talk about permitting, it's still taking a really long time. If we are trying to figure out situations where the mom and pop can actually do the development, incentivize the mom-and-pop folks to be able to do the development versus the big corporations, that's a whole different analysis and set of things we need to look at," said Alter.

Some locals moving out of Austin as city becomes more unaffordable

Affordability and available housing supply have become major issues in Austin as the city continues to see booming growth.

Ultimately, Quijano believes what will drive down the rent, is finding out how to reduce costs for the builders, and make some changes to the land development code. "Another thing we believe can really drive the cost of rent and mortages down, is the accessory dwelling unit, where you see the smaller homes being built in folks' backyard," he said.

The idea of the ADU is to allow renters to be able to access more affordable housing units, while also allowing the homeowner to benefit financially as well.

Austin City Council will take up the item on Dec. 9.

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