City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues,

I wanted to post briefly about item 41, CM Duchen’s resolution about Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing. I appreciate CM Duchen for bringing the resolution. I pulled the item for Work Session so we can have a discussion on a few points ahead of the council meeting on Thursday.

CM Duchen has talked about a program, the Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund, that Assistant City Manager Eric Johnson worked on while he was in Dallas. I would like to give Dr Johnson time during the work session to talk about the work he did in Dallas.

I also want to ensure that what we are trying to preserve is good quality housing and I may offer amendment language on this point.

Some older apartments were built to last and are still in good shape. With proper care and maintenance many of those units could continue to provide good housing for decades to come. Some are in poor shape now, but are structurally sound and could have their life extended with significant renovations.

Other old apartment buildings were built cheaply and are now at the end of their useful life. Many have major structural issues that can’t be fixed. Some have negligent landlords that have not done proper maintenance for years. I have seen too many examples in District 4 of tenants being forced to live in unsafe, unhealthy and undignified conditions.

As we talk about preserving older apartments, I want to ensure that we are mindful of the natural life cycles and quality of the housing that is provided.

Chito

Colleagues,

Here is my draft amendment for the item.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 174258.pdf

Chito

Thank you, CM Vela, for your insightful questions and comments regarding the NOAH IFC and for jumpstarting what I though was a productive conversation at yesterday’s work session. I hope that Dr. Johnson’s testimony helped clarify the intention and potential of this council action as well has helped clarify the overlapping, but distinct, definitions of NOAH.

As Dr. Johnson noted, the multifamily housing market landscape has changed over the last decade as a result of, among other factors, national organizations like CoStar identifying aging multifamily properties as investment vehicles with significant potential returns. They identify these properties as NOAH with reference to their age and cost.

From the perspective the residents of Austin and our IFC, NOAH represents affordable housing based on the rental price tenants will pay rather than strictly the age of the structure. I heard Dr. Johnson try to address both of these definitions. He highlighted that the majority of Austin’s affordable housing (affordable to households making below the median family income) is NOAH. He also helped clarify the investment landscape with regard to one and two “star” NOAH properties already identified by the investment community. These two definitions do overlap, but it is important to recognize that with regards to NOAH, the investment community, the City of Austin, and the affordable housing advocacy community, do not always agree with what we are referring to nor do all parties always share the same goals or perspective. For the purposes of the city, NOAH can refer to properties by age, but more often, we are referring to its affordability. All that to say, part of the goal of the resolution is to gather helpful data on NOAH properties to ensure the city and any related funds can make sound decisions about where to make investments.

This IFC represents the work of city staff, council, and affordable housing stakeholders coordinating efforts to increase the city’s response to the loss of inexpensive market rate housing. The loss of these properties is a natural part of the city’s growth and the increased investment in its housing stock. As there are already a number of successful programs for the production of affordable housing and leveraging investment in new builds, this resolution attempts to add a variety of tools to cover areas where the city’s response could be more robust in preserving socially valuable housing stock and help us scale our efforts.

I think I understand CM Vela’s concerns around ensuring that the city is thoughtful and strategic about the properties it intends to preserve – that they are not in such poor condition that either (a) it would be inappropriate to ask our neighbors to continue to live there or (b) that amount of investment to revitalize the property represents a poor investment. The concern is well taken, and I would like to offer the below amended version of the IFC (that law is currently reviewing) to address his concerns as well as present the work that our sub-quorum has done to address similar concerns.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HinzoV ... sp=sharing

I’ll end this (overly-long) post with a comment that Dr. Johnson shared yesterday: “the bulk of America’s affordable housing stock is actually in the NOAH space – it’s not tax credits, its not public housing, it’s actually in the NOAH space.” Per our discussion Tuesday I think there is tremendous opportunity to expand our NOAH tools to stem displacement and look forward to hopefully taking a big step forward tomorrow with everyone’s help.

-Marc