The City of Austin Housing Department updated its Displacement Risk Area Map and Dashboard for the first time since 2020, identifying city areas where displacement increased, according to a July 11 press release. 

Marla Torrado, the housing department’s division manager, said the department developed the map and dashboard several years ago using the Uprooted Report, a methodology developed by UT researchers. She said the update categorized the data into three displacement categories: vulnerable, active and chronic, making it clearer and more concise. 

“We have updated and simplified the categories of vulnerability (for displacement) just to make it easier,” Torrado said. 

According to the dashboard, displacement risk areas are broadening, noticeably in the northern, eastern and southern outskirts of the city. There has also been an increase of people living in “vulnerable” and “chronic” zones, possibly due to changes in demographics and unique conditions including COVID-19 and housing market spikes.

Torrado said the dashboard also includes the Project Connect Spending Dashboard, which shows the spending of the $300 million anti-displacement funds voters approved in 2020. 

“(The community) defined that the $300 million anti-displacement funds were to be used within a one-mile buffer of the Project Connect lines in the displacement risk areas,” Torrado said. “That’s how those two work together. The anti-displacement funds can only be used in one of those three displacement risk areas within that one mile.” 

Annick Beaudet, the mobility officer for Project Connect, said the city must explain to the public how the project is progressing and where major expenditures are being made. 

“It’s important to note that displacement in any city, not just Austin, is due to many market forces that are out of the control of cities,” Beaudet said. “We do have control of certain items, such as providing more affordable housing, providing information through community-based initiatives, or providing rental assistance … we are maximizing our toolbox and the things we can control … and this dashboard reflects that effort.”

The Uprooted Report was originally published in 2018. Jake Wegmann, a lead researcher for the report, said a city council member approached the University to develop this methodology because they felt there was no gentrification analysis in Austin.

“With this method, you take every census tract in the city, and then you classify it according to whether it’s gentrifying or not, and then if it is, then what stage of gentrification it’s in,” said Wegmann, an associate professor of community and regional planning. “The city adopted that map … and it uses that to help it make decisions.” 

Wegmann said the report also included policies and case studies that outline things the city could do to eliminate displacement and examine displacement reduction efforts in other cities around the country. However, the census data has a two-year time delay, meaning the latest data available is from 2022, collected in 2018, he said.

Torrado said her team is beginning to analyze the methodology used to ensure it is still relevant. She said her team has also been working within the housing department to develop other dashboards for projects similar to Project Connect. 

“I think (the dashboard) is important information to have for policymakers and for other stakeholders in the community to just understand how Austin is changing and where the need is, or what the need is, based on the different risk areas,” Torrado said.