Austin’s Prop 15: More Affordable Housing
Austin's ballot propositions will be decided Nov. 6. Photo by KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
With elections around the corner, KUT News is reviewing the 18 city ballot propositions that Austinites will vote on in November.
By Tyler Pratt
Proposition 15 would allow the city to continue to fund affordable housing. The $78 million bond is aimed at expanding the city’s supply of affordable housing.
“There is a need for affordable housing everywhere, and there is a strong desire to have the ability for residents to have a housing choice in all parts of Austin,” said Rebecca Giello with the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Office.
Prop 15 would provide funding to build, renovate and repair homes for low-income people. It also includes money for home improvements for the disabled and elderly.
Supporters say that all types of people in Austin need affordable housing.
“We need the people that need affordable housing,” said Ann Howard, executive director of the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. “They might be working in our school cafeterias, or in our hospitals, or in our home health facilities, at the Capitol building. People who are on very meager incomes, but do work. Or might have suffered a disability and therefore have some assistance, but not much.”
Voters already approved a $55 million bond for the city’s affordable housing program in 2006. And homeless advocacy organizations, like Green Doors, say even this year’s $78 million bond isn’t enough to fill the city’s affordable housing need.
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