Rent

Applications to the city’s rental assistance program have been closed since February. Council members voted this summer to reup the program with about $3.6 million in funding.

Hundreds of thousands of renters in the Austin area are, quite literally, burdened by the price of shelter, meaning they have less income to spend on groceries, transportation and healthcare.

Since May 2023, the average monthly rent in the Austin area has declined. Prices are down 6% compared to this time last year.

The tenants union, launched Sunday, is intended to help students handle issues common to many renters in the city, such as escalating rents and delayed repairs. It plans to hold biweekly meetings and advocate for more affordable and accessible housing.

A recent study found nearly half of Austin's renters are paying a third of their paycheck (at least) on housing. Another showed renters need to make $26 an hour to comfortably afford a one-bedroom here.

This month, the average rent for an apartment any size is $1,679 a month — $34 less than it was this time last year.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will take applications for rental assistance until noon on Thursday, almost two weeks earlier than planned.

To answer that question, we need to go back to World War II and the era of federal rent control.

Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin all ranked among the top 10 cities for new eviction filings in early April, among the 31 cities tracked by Eviction Lab.

The county received more than 3,300 applications in the first week alone. By comparison, fewer than 1,000 people applied over six weeks to a similar program last year.