Build housing that families can afford
On Feb. 4, the AmericanStatesman had a great and, I think, accurate editorial arguing that Austin’s high cost of living should be the main issue in the upcoming Austin City Council elections. I’d go further: Affordable housing for families with kids should be the main issue.
Why? Because housing eats up about 30 percent of every family’s budget. Worse, it’s a fixed monthly amount that can’t be controlled like the electric bill by turning off the lights.
MPF Research, a firm that tracks apartments, reports that rents in Austin increased 7.2 percent in 2011, and projects rent increases of 6 percent in 2012, 5.5 percent in 2013 and 4 percent in 2014. With compounding, that’s roughly a 25 percent increase in four years. That’s great for developers and the city’s tax base, but it’s terrible for residents.
While rents are going up, wages are stagnant or falling. The result is that Austin households will pay an ever-increasing percentage of their take-home pay for rent. Some lower income families will pay 40 percent to 50 percent of their income.
In a 2009 report titled “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2009,” Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that with increased rents, families spend less on food, clothing, health care, insurance and transportation.
High rents literally impact what families eat and whether they can go to the doctor. Forget saving to send the kids to college or to make a down payment on a house. High rents prevent families from getting ahead.
Austin has trapped itself with competing goals. Every politician is for affordable housing. Every politician is also for growth management, water quality, endangered species protection, off-grid solar power, development along urban rail lines, walkable communities, heritage tree preservation, high density urban infill, and “sustainability,” whatever that really means.
The regulations required to reach those goals add to construction costs and limit supply, both of which drive up rents.
I suspect that politicians really don’t get it. When Brigid Shea announced her candidacy against Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, she admirably focused on Austin’s high cost of living. In the same breath, she talked about water recycling and said she would require “purple pipes” in all new subdivisions. There wasn’t a hint of acknowledgment that those “purple pipes” cost extra, resulting in increased rents and a higher cost of living.
In Austin’s political parlance, “affordable housing” means “subsidized housing.” Groups are already lobbying to include $110 million for affordable housing in the upcoming November bond election. That’s a worthy goal, but Austin will never be able to subsidize the number of affordable housing units needed for a growing population. What Austin needs is “affordable housing” meaning “housing that cost less.”
Using federal grant money, Austin is currently planning Austin’s Colony, a model “sustainable” housing development in East Austin. Usually Austin appoints a steering committee representing various interest groups to lead such efforts. Austin will appoint advocates for solar panels, mass transit, handicap access, water recycling, rainwater harvesting, bicycling, etc. The result will be a project that will include everyone’s pet issue and a project that cannot be built without a large government subsidy.
In short, the project will resemble Austin, lots of bells and whistles, many of which are laudable, but it will not be affordable for most residents.
Austin should set a simple goal for Austin’s Colony: Let’s see how affordably we can build housing that is family- and kid-friendly, energy-efficient, practical, durable, and constructed and financed without public subsidy.
Austin should appoint a steering committee of housing experts with the goal of cutting costs. That committee should be allowed to look at city policies that drive up costs or limit supply.
In short, Austin’s Colony could be an example of where Austin government needs to head, a return to basics with fewer bells and whistles. If we really want an affordable Austin, maybe it’s time to forget the “purple pipe.”