Airbnb announced a $6.4 million investment in northeast Austin to fund affordable housing in the city earlier this month.
The investment, part of Airbnb’s Housing Accelerator program, will support the creation of 201 units of affordable housing at 800 E. St. John Avenue, a lot that has sat vacant for nearly 20 years. Working with Austin, the project will also support a companion project with an additional 325 units of mixed-income housing.
The city has owned the St. John site since 2013 but has struggled to make progress on any projects. In 2017, former City Council member Greg Casar, now a U.S. congressman representing Austin, passed a resolution directing the city to reimagine the plot of land. Although City Council approved the project in 2020, it stalled for five years because of a lack of funding, despite community support.
Airbnb’s investment will cover the remaining funding needed to move the project forward.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said dozens of housing investment proposals have been submitted to Airbnb across 13 states and Washington, D.C., since the Housing Accelerator program went public. Research by the Center for Public Enterprise estimates about 750,000 housing units are currently stalled in the United States.
“The U.S. is short (of) more than 5 million homes — more than all the housing units in New York City and Los Angeles combined,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We launched the Airbnb Housing Accelerator to help make building housing easier, faster, and cheaper by tackling several construction barriers simultaneously: financing, data, policy reform, and innovation.”
Airbnb is also funding local organizations in Austin supporting pro-housing reforms. Zach Faddis, president of Austinites for Urban Rail Action, an urbanist advocacy nonprofit in Austin, said Airbnb gave the group a $75,000 grant, which Faddis said will help AURA expand past exclusively volunteer work and hire an additional part-time employee.
AURA engages with Austin residents and city hall to change affordable housing and zoning laws. Faddis said the organization has helped remove city parking minimums, increase the number of homes allowed on family lots and push other reforms citywide. Faddis said he is hopeful the project will further expand affordable housing opportunities in Austin.
“(The U.S. has) made it very hard to build enough housing and (has) outlawed many of the kinds of housing that would allow people to live more (and) work comfortably, more affordably and would result in less homelessness and need for affordable housing in America,” Faddis said.