AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is exploring an emerging policy to further tackle the city’s affordability crisis and climate change.
On Thursday, council members voted to adopt a resolution directing the city manager to look into how the city can implement a Green Social Housing policy, which combines permanently affordable housing and public ownership.
“When we say social housing, we mean deeply affordable. I mean, part of the strategy is to have market rate units that help subsidize the more deeply affordable units,” said Council Member Mike Siegel. “We have to prove that the public sector can build cost effective, high quality housing.”
Siegel spearheaded the resolution, which was inspired by similar policies launched in Montgomery County, Maryland, which has seen success.
Vienna has been noted as pioneering the model for social housing.
The District 7 leader said the idea is to develop one to two projects to prove the model works.
The city manager is expected to provide an update on the resolution to the Housing and Planning Committee on Oct. 13. The goal is to give council results in December.
“Austin is already more sustainable than any other housing being built in the city”
Jason John Paul Haskins is with the Austin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects said there’s still a lot to understand when it comes to the proposal.
“We need to make sure we’re not detracting from the good work we’re already doing,” said Haskins.
Haskins, however, said he looks forward to working with Siegel and noted that Austin is ahead of the game when it comes to blending affordable housing and sustainability.
An example is the Norman Commons in East Austin, which is an affordable apartment community that has sustainability features that include plant-based floors, highly efficient air conditioning, occupancy sensors and healthy materials and paint finishes.
“We’re building affordable housing for the long term; we are already more interested in the lifecycle cost analysis for durability of materials,” said Haskins.