Affordable Housing Education Outreach
HousingWorks Fourth Annual Fall Summit “A Place To Do Homework”
HousingWorks Austin hosted its Fourth Annual housing Summit at Fulmore Middle School on November 10, 2007, in collaboration with Austin Independent School District (AISD). Approximately 117 people attended the Fall Summit held November 10th at Fulmore Middle School.
The summit explored the connections between affordable housing and education. Using the opportunity maps presented by Kirwan Institute in March 2007, HousingWorks organized the Summit around three bodies of information: 1) Demographic data on housing and education; 2) housing-related problems in schools; and 3) case studies of the successful local interactions between affordable housing, neighborhoods and schools to improve school success.
Highlights of what we found during the discussions are presented below.
- Housing and schools are inextricably connected. The schools are largely affected by housing patterns in the community - mixed income housing leads to mixed income schools; income segregated housing patterns lead to income-segregated schools. Therefore, we need to work on planning for mixed housing stock with a wide range of affordability in all parts of the city. Having the AISD leadership call for this kind of urban planning would be valuable.
- AISD is now predominantly lower income. Sixty percent of the AISD students are on free or reduced lunch program. Reversing this trend will require action in housing and in schools. Schools must be viewed as “the best” by middle income families. Therefore, the schools could do focused market research on what middle income households require in their public schools in order to routinely choose to stay in AISD rather than to move (to private schools or to move out of district).
- High quality affordable homeownership opportunities must be available in the school district. This will require looking at how to promote construction of new homes and preservation of existing homes affordable to Austin's middle income families. (Median household income is $70,000).
- AISD also faces a problem in terms of the academic success of lower income and minority children. Affordable apartments can be an excellent location for after-school academic support programs.
We have seen that if residents/schools/policy/ housing providers/services plan together, the whole community, including the school, can succeed despite the housing pattern.
Speaker Series
HousingWorks will provide a speaker to your group or organization to present information on affordable housing issues in Austin. Topics HousingWorks can address include: the impact of affordable housing on education, the status of the $55 million affordable housing bonds, and broader policy recommendations for creating and preserving affordable housing in Austin.
Summits
HousingWorks has sponsored a series of informative summits on key issues affecting affordability in our region. Topics have ranged from a broader discussion of the affordability problem in Austin to specific discussions around how housing affordability affects neighborhoods.
Coming Soon! HousingWorks will be hosting its 5th Annual Housing Summit on November 15. Details coming soon!
Speakers
HousingWorks speakers are available for presentations. Contact Christine Buendel at c_buendel@yahoo.com, 512.326.3356
Timely Research
A key part of HousingWorks' mission is getting quality, germane housing research done to better inform how our community makes decisions about affordability. Below are links to different reports that HousingWorks has had commissioned through the wonderful help of key partners.
Preserving Austin's Multifamily Rental Housing — A Toolkit download report (PDF) »
The report explores the policy tools be used by cities and states across the country to preserve affordable rental housing opportunities for low income families.
Preserving Affordable Apartments in Austin — Case Study Analysis of the East Riverside/Oltorf Combined Neighborhood Planning Area download report (PDF) »
The report focuses on identifying affordable housing at risk in a particular Austin neighborhood and the limited options currently available to preserve it.