City of Austin officials and local leaders spoke about state solutions to the affordable housing crisis within Austin during a panel at this year’s Texas Tribune Festival.
Hosted at the festival’s Open Congress event, which was free to the public, the panel featured members of non-partisan think tank Texas 2036, the Real Estate Council of Austin, the Austin City Council and the Lyndon B. Johnson Urban Lab.
Moderator Joshua Fechter, an urban affairs reporter at The Texas Tribune, opened the panel by asking why Texas, once known for being affordable, is seeing a rise in the cost of housing within metro cities like Austin.
Steven Pedigo, professor and director at the LBJ Urban Lab, said when he was offered a job at the University of Texas, he was often told, “Come to Texas. It is way cheaper than New York.” He said this idea has spread across the country, causing a rise in the demand for housing in Texas.
Alina Carnahan, vice president of advocacy for the Real Estate Council of Austin, said younger generations initiated the conversation of housing availability and affordability.
“Young folks woke up and said ‘I can’t afford to own a home,’” Carnahan said. “‘My parents can afford to own a home with two blue-collar jobs, and me and my partner, we can’t afford it with two white-collar jobs, and that doesn’t feel right.’”
A.J. Rodriguez, executive vice president of Texas 2036, said displacement due to housing affordability goes beyond moving from metro areas to suburbia. Instead, if housing availability fails to keep up with demand, people may leave the state altogether.
“We’re experiencing 1,300 people (moving to Texas) every single day, most of those domestic migrants coming from all over the country,” Rodriguez said.
Pedigo said suburbs will continue to see population growth, but there needs to be another way to address the housing issue within the city. He suggested promoting multi-housing units to Texans as a solution.
“Most Texans are still drunk on the idea that the best type of physical house is a single-family house,” Pedigo said. “We have to imagine that the word density is not a scary term.”
Austin City Council member Vanessa Fuentes said she is “cautiously optimistic” for the next state legislative session because housing has become an issue both Republicans and Democrats are speaking about at the Capitol.
“One of the first policies that (Vice President Kamala Harris) talks about is a $25,000 down payment assistance program,” Fuentes said. “Even (Gov. Greg Abbott is) talking about taking on corporate landlords and institutional investors. This is an incredible moment where Democrats and Republicans see common ground, and it’s on housing.”
