Ken Corby is the vice chair of Austin Habitat for Humanity’s
board and its current interim CEO.
As vice chair of the Austin Habitat for Humanity board, I
became familiar with Ikram Nassif’s story. She moved to Austin after fleeing
Beirut, Lebanon, in 1998. Shortly after, she moved into government-subsidized
housing and began the job she still has to this day, as a housekeeper at the
Four Seasons. Despite working long hours for 17 years, Ikram could never afford
to move out of subsidized housing, not with three children to feed and clothe
and certainly not in a city where housing costs have skyrocketed.
Nassif is one example of a systemic flaw in our American
dream: dedication and hard work will get you there as long as your dedication
and hard work are in a higher wage bracket. Unfortunately, this is now truer
for Austin than any other U.S. metro area. Our city has become a major player
in the wealth-gap game, and the issue can be tied directly to housing.
According to a recent study by the Austin Board of Realtors,
the average home price in Austin is now more than $300,000. In May, prices
jumped $20,000 in only 30 days. These numbers have made it impossible for
anyone low-income to buy a home. With equity tied directly into home buying,
they also make it impossible for such a person to increase their wealth.
The capital city’s job market is one of the healthiest from
a federal standpoint, but when you look in the microcosm, you see most of the
opportunities are created in low-paying jobs, such as Nassif’s. This has an
interesting effect. Unlike the national trend of declining rates, Austin’s
homeownership rate has stayed at 45 percent for more than a decade. The
increasing prices blocked out new owners and instead created habitual renters.
Now, as home prices rise, these renters don’t experience wealth growth.
Instead, they get increased rent, which decreases their wealth. For people who
are already low-income, this hit is devastating: 69 percent of low-income
Austin renters spend almost half their income solely on housing.
The issue is daunting, but as a city we recognize this.
Mayor Adler’s adamancy for more affordable housing is a step forward. As an
organization, Austin Habitat does more to combat these affordability issues
than many know. Here, I do not refer to breadth, but rather depth. It is
understood we build homes. It is not understood that our clients make mortgage
payments, physically build the homes alongside volunteers and are required to
complete financial and mortgage counseling courses. We also have a home-repair
program, which makes critical repairs to existing homes, and we offer free
financial services to the public. After 30 years and 395 homes built, we have
been fighting. We fight not just for affordability, but for sustainability. To
achieve this we must innovate.
With the landscape of Austin changing so rapidly, land to
build on is becoming scarce, especially for a nonprofit that can be easily
outbid by private businesses. This means we are faced with the question: “How
do we continue to serve people at the same rate?” We have to adapt. We will
begin constructing denser, two-story housing rather than the sprawling
one-story family homes we do now. Not only will it allow us more flexibility
with land, but it also does something much more impactful in a city that
desperately needs it: It allows us to serve more deserving, low-income people
like Nassif, who work their entire lives toward something which is out of their
reach even though they are the very backbone of our community.
Our programs cannot single-handedly solve our city’s
affordability crisis, and it will not turn the housing market around or make
income levels rise. We are only one organization. We will continue to change
the lives of our families as we have been for 30 years, but we cannot do it
alone. Austin Habitat needs community support. The city needs to listen to
Mayor Adler. In order to drive prices back down, Austin needs to build more
housing—but on a reasonable scale that doesn’t include luxury high-rises. We
need the American dream back before the wealth gap swallows us whole.
