UT’s Austin City Council member and a Texas House candidate discussed housing and affordability at Thursday’s town hall on campus.

Partnering with UT Habitat for Humanity, Longhorn Urbanists, College Houses Cooperatives and the UT Law Public Interest Law Association, the University Tenants’ Union hosted Austin City Council member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, who is up for re-election in November, and Texas House District 49 candidate Montserrat Garibay.

Qadri, who has represented UT and West Campus in the Austin City Council for three years, said his top three priorities if re-elected would be affordability, mobility and helping underserved populations. 

Qadri said during his first term, he worked with the UT Tenants’ Union on closing a loophole that allowed windowless apartments and focused on fixing plumbing and flooding issues, securing preservation grants for heritage homes and reducing occupancy limits. 

Garibay said she would like to speak directly to students about their housing costs and put in place laws preventing landlords from inflating prices based on location. In January 2025, the Department of Justice sued six property management companies — including one with properties in West Campus — for colluding to fix rent prices.

“When I was here at UT, I actually never lived in the UT area because it was so expensive,” Garibay said. “I would be very interested (in doing) research on how this is affecting students. … Students are supposed to be learning, and they shouldn’t be worrying about how much money they have to pay for an apartment.”

Government senior Folakemi Elekolusi, one of the Tenants’ Union’s organizers of the town hall, said this event was successful in getting students engaged and giving them clarity on each candidate’s housing policy goals. 

“We don’t endorse political candidates at all,” Elekolusi said. “We just care about housing, and we want to hear what the people who are going to be representing us, or might be representing us, think about housing.”

Early voting for Texas legislative primaries will take place Feb. 17-27, and Election Day is March 3. The Austin City Council and the State House general election will take place on Nov. 3. 

“This city should work for you,” Qadri said in response to being asked what message he would give to students on campus. “It shouldn’t ‘kind of’ work for you or ‘a little’ work for you. It should work for you as much as it works for anyone else in this city.”