Build More Missing Middle Housing in Austin
Preserving the American Dream of Home Ownership in Austin through HOME
HOME stands for Home Options for Middle-income Empowerment
Key Points
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HOME will open up more housing opportunities to middle-income Austin workers, students, retirees, and families by allowing 3 units on one residential unit.
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This same policy has been tried in Minneapolis and Houston, with significant success taming housing prices. To understand more about the research, click here.
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HOME will prevent Austin from creating an affordability crisis like that of California where the vast majority of working class people are priced out of the American Dream of homeownership.
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Austinites opposed to this will have the ability to create their own lot sizes through HOAs which can set their own lot requirements (an alternative to killing the proposal outright).
How can you help?
- We need you to ask your elected officials to support Council Member Leslie Pool’s HOME resolution. If applicable, explain how your life has been impacted by Austin’s housing crisis.
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Most importantly, we need you to sign up to speak on Dec 7th for 2 minutes on HOME— the message will be very simple and we can help you with the talking points. Sign up here.
- If you have only one minute, write a letter to all city council members through this link.
How to contact the Mayor and City Council Members
Mayor Kirk Watson: Dial 512-974-2000, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 1, Natasha Harper-Madison: Dial 512-978-2101, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 2, Vanessa Fuentes: Dial 512-978-2102, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 3, José Miguel Anwar Velásquez: Dial 512-978-2103, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 4, José “Chito” Vela: Dial 512-978-2104, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 5, Ryan Alter: Dial 512-978-2105, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 6, Mackenzie Kelly: Dial 512-978-2106, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 7, Leslie Pool: Dial 512-978-2107, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call. If you talk to her, thank her for sponsoring the HOME Resolution.
District 8 (and Mayor Pro Tem), Paige Ellis: Dial 512-978-2108, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 9, Zohaib “Zo” Qadri: Dial 512-978-2109, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
District 10, Alison Alter: Dial 512-978-2110, or click this link to reach out to schedule an appointment or call.
Research
Frequently Asked Questions
Will this proposal drive displacement?
NO.
As a Pew study put it, Houston implemented a similar policy with fruitful results: “Adding more housing did not displace residents. In the two decades after Houston’s lot-size reform, most new town houses were added in higher-income, largely White neighborhoods, even as the city gained more Black and Hispanic residents than other major cities. Ultimately, allowing enough housing for everyone enabled affordability and reduced displacement pressures.”
Will the new homes be more expensive than the old homes?
Building homes on smaller lots is an effective way to increase the supply of Missing Middle housing in urban areas. New homes are typically more expensive to buy than existing homes, but smaller lot homes in Houston were affordable for moderate-income families. The median assessed value of a smaller lot home was $340,000, which was considerably lower than the median value of other new single-family homes in the city which cost $545,000. In 2020, this amount was affordable for families earning at least 105% of the area's median family income. This relative affordability is particularly striking because most of these homes were in Houston's urban core, which offers good access to jobs, transportation, and other amenities.
Will this proposal drive gentrification?
NO.
Land-use policies that enable more housing can help stem housing cost growth and make displacement less common.Displacement is more common in locations where restrictive zoning policies make it difficult to build enough homes for all residents. When there is more housing available, the price of housing goes down and displacement pressures are reduced.
From 2000 to 2021, Houston's Black and Hispanic populations grew by 4% and 40%, respectively, while other major American cities experienced declines in their Black populations and more modest increases in their Hispanic populations during the same period. This suggests that Houston's accommodating land-use policies have made it possible for Black and Hispanic residents to affordably and conveniently live in the city.
If you hate this proposal, will it be forced on you?
NO.
Homeowner Associations allow communities to set their own lot sizes.