The biggest impact of Austin’s transformation from a college town to a hub for tech companies is, arguably, the city’s housing prices. Since 2000, the median price of rent has more than doubled and a larger share of renters spend more than a third of their income on rent and utilities.
From what can be built in a given neighborhood to solutions to growing homelessness, housing policies are largely governed by local elected officials. And so as voters head to the polls this election season, it's helpful to know what local candidates are thinking about housing.
While the mayor’s vote does not outweigh those of any council member, the person in this role leads the body. So, we sent the five mayoral candidates four questions about some of the city’s biggest housing issues. We also included an open-ended question: What would be your biggest housing policy as mayor?
Housing affordability
A rent or mortgage payment is typically a family’s largest expense. In 2022, nearly half of all renters in the Austin area spent more than a third of their income on rent.
But those who follow the issue of housing affordability often differ on what exactly is to blame. Should we build more housing? Should we limit the use of short-term rentals such as Airbnb? Should we make it harder for investors to buy homes?
Land use changes
For the past decade, elected officials in Austin have pushed to amend the city’s land development code. This is a complex set of rules that governs what can be built and where – everything from the height of a building to how close a house has to sit back from the street. The topic has been contentious.
But since 2023, there’s been more political will to change these rules. In the past year, council members have made big changes to the land code, including voting to allow more homes to be built in central neighborhoods.
Help paying rent
Since 2020, the City of Austin has dedicated millions of dollars to helping low-income people pay their rent. But the number of people who have applied for help has thus far exceeded the city's resources. Recently, the council voted to replenish the rental assistance fund, setting aside about $3.5 million.
Homelessness
The City of Austin, buoyed by federal funding during the pandemic, has spent a historic amount of money on temporary shelters and housing for people experiencing homelessness. Yet since 2020, the number of people without permanent housing in Austin and Travis County has doubled.
Candidate responses
All candidates were sent the same questions at the same time and given four days to reply. We’ve presented their answers in the order we received them. Jeffery Bowen did not respond, but we will update the story if he does.
Kirk Watson
Current mayor
Housing affordability: Watson blames a shortage of homes for the city’s growing housing costs. He says Austin’s land development code and permitting process “prevented growth of our housing supply.”
Land use changes: Watson says he is “proud” of the land code changes made during his most recent term. (More on those here and here.) He says if he’s re-elected he wants to “monitor and understand the impacts that these changes make on our city.”
Help paying rent: He says he wants to see “programs like rental assistance remain sustainable” and that the city also needs to address other costs that strain families’ budgets, such as child care and transportation.
Homelessness: Watson says rent prices need to continue to come down to decrease homelessness. He also says the city needs to fund all homelessness interventions, from temporary shelters to permanent housing.
Biggest housing priority: He wants to make sure the most recent land code changes are implemented successfully and to find more ways to encourage developers to build income-restricted housing, or homes set aside for people earning low incomes.
Kathie Tovo
Former Austin City Council member
Housing affordability: Tovo does not blame the struggle to afford housing on any one item, but instead says “stagnant wages; steep and unsustainable prices for child care, healthcare, senior care; transportation; and, at its heart, an insufficient number of long-term, affordable (income-restricted) housing opportunities” all contribute to a high cost of living.
Land use changes: Tovo says she would have voted against recent zoning changes because they do not require property owners to set aside any new homes for people earning low incomes. She also said she would have opposed these policies because of concerns of displacement and increased flooding.
Help paying rent: Tovo says she would support continued funding by the city of a rent assistance program. But that “if we increase and incentivize the number of income-restricted homes … then the need for taxpayer-funded rental assistance for tenants to pay private landlords could decrease.”
Homelessness: She criticizes the current council’s decision to move federal money from permanent housing to temporary shelters. She also says she would work to raise private funds to help pay for homelessness solutions.
Biggest housing priority: Tovo says she would like to see the city build affordable housing on land it owns.
Doug Greco
Former director of Central Texas Interfaith
Housing affordability: Greco blames the city’s population growth, a “large influx of capital,” condominium development downtown and investor purchases of homes for the growing cost of housing.
Land use changes: Greco says he supports changing the land code to increase the number of homes built in the city, but that he would have also supported rules to make sure current residents are not displaced by new development.
Help paying rent: Greco calls rental assistance “one of our primary tools to prevent displacement and economic homelessness.” He says the city should be spending more money on this, while also noting how hard that might be given the loss of pandemic-era federal funding.
Homelessness: Greco says the city needs to spend more on temporary shelters, arguing that they are “the point of entry in which those experiencing homelessness can be connected to services and programs that get them on track to these successful permanent housing options.”
Biggest housing priority: Greco does not pick one priority, but says he would continue funding “rental assistance, deeply affordable housing, housing for those experiencing homelessness, and ensuring the land code changes work for families who live here and want to live here.”
Carmen Llanes Pulido
Director of nonprofit Go Austin/Vamos Austin
Housing affordability: Llanes Pulido says the root of Austin’s affordability issues is the city’s reluctance to preserve existing cheap housing while also working to attract high-income workers to the city.
Land use changes: Llanes Pulido says while she supports changes to the land development code, she does not support the changes the current council has made, saying these changes were made “without requirements for affordability, energy conservation, adequate drainage requirements, etc.”
Help paying rent: Llanes Pulido supports increasing the city’s rent assistance fund, but says the city needs to focus on the “root cause”: preserving cheap housing and building more income-restricted homes.
Homelessness: Llanes Pulido says she wants “[m]ore funding at the point of prevention” and less money spent on cleaning up homeless encampments. She also says she wants to see more sober living options and a focus on harm reduction as opposed to police ticketing people.
Biggest housing priority: Llanes Pulido says she wants to create a housing fund that would divert money to build and preserve affordable housing. She says this fund would be “overseen by people with direct lived experience in the housing affordability system.”
Support for KUT's reporting on housing news comes from the Austin Community Foundation. Sponsors do not influence KUT's editorial decisions.
