Austin man falls victim to affordable housing crisis

AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin man found himself couch-surfing and living out of his truck after falling victim to the affordable housing crisis. 

A new report shows the City of Austin is not on track to meet the housing development goals that were set in 2017.

"It's just not doable, it wasn't for me," Josh Paulson said.

Josh Paulson said that’s how he felt in 2021 when looking at the prices for places to live.

"The house that me and my cousin and I were renting went up for sale and I couldn't find anything affordable for me to live," Paulson said.

Paulson said he went out of town for work, couch-surfed, and even slept in his truck some nights.

"It's not that hard to not have a place to live or to have a mental situation that I can't take care of on my own," Paulson said.

Josh Paulson

In May 2023, Paulson said he felt unlovable, broken, and in a crisis.

"I was walking towards the liquor store and there was a police officer in a car right on the path and I stopped him and asked him for help," Paulson said.

Paulson checked himself into a facility. "Things get better, it's not permanent," Paulson said.

Paulson has found a place to stay and is getting back on his feet.

MORE: Housing affordability crisis: New report looks at how bad it is in Austin

The affordable housing crisis in Austin has impacted many others, too. "It seems like we're just getting bumped out of any affordable anything," Paulson said.

In 2017, the Austin City Council approved a strategic housing plan which called for construction of 135,000 more housing units by 2025 with 60,000 of them being affordable. 

At the halfway point, a new report revealed the city isn’t on track to accomplish that goal. 

"There are multiple different things that make it really difficult. There's no doubt that we cannot underplay the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sort of associated economic downturn has had," HousingWorks Austin Awais Azhar said.

The report made by the City of Austin and the nonprofit HousingWorks Austin said about 10,500 units affordable to households earning 80% median family income or below have been built over the past five years, which is just over a third needed to keep pace with meeting the goal.

"It looks like we are behind on our goals, and we are, but at the same time, we have a lot of units in our pipeline based on investments from our city, from Travis County, from the federal dollars, so in the future, in the coming years, I think we can see us move really rapidly on some of these goals," Azhar said.

A positive pointed out in the report is that Austin is on track to meet or exceed the goals for affordable housing preservation.