FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 9/5/2024
HousingWorks Austin Names Awais Azhar as New Executive Director Following Retirement of Nora Linares-Moeller
AUSTIN, TX — HousingWorks Austin, Central Texas’s leading affordable housing research, education, and advocacy organization announces the appointment of Awais Azhar as Executive Director. Awais succeeds Nora Linares-Moeller, who is retiring and moving into an advisory role for the organization after seven distinguished years as Executive Director.
“Awais is exactly the leader we need at this moment in our region’s pursuit of more affordable housing,” said Parisa Fatehi-Weeks, Chair of the HousingWorks Austin Board of Directors. “He will seamlessly advance the impact that HousingWorks achieved under Nora’s leadership. His expertise, combined with his bridge-building style, will strengthen coalitions and further the innovative approaches necessary to realize our vision of ‘All Kinds of Homes, In All Parts of Town, For all Kinds of People.’ “
Currently serving as Deputy Director of HousingWorks Austin, Awais has been a respected leader in the Austin community for more than a decade in various capacities, including supporting multiple Austin Affordable Housing bond programs, Project Connect’s anti-displacement strategies, the Affordability Unlocked program, and the Home Options for Mobility and Equity (“HOME”) Initiative. He is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Community Advisory Council, has been chair of the Project Connect Community Advisory Committee, and is in his fourth term on the City of Austin Planning Commission, for which he was recently recognized as the Hardest-Working Planning Commissioner by the Austin Chronicle. Awais is also a Community and Regional Planning Ph.D. Candidate at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture.
“For a decade now I have engaged with HousingWorks Austin in various capacities. I remain as dedicated as ever to the organization’s mission of advancing housing affordability in all Central Texas communities,” said Awais. “As I take on this new role, I am committed to advancing the vision for a diverse and inclusive Austin that welcomes new residents with abundant and equitable housing opportunities, while protecting existing communities and vulnerable residents from displacement and segregation.”
Nora began her work with HousingWorks Austin in 2014 and has served as its Executive Director since 2017. She leaves behind a strong foundation for the organization. Under her guidance, the organization’s reach has expanded to additional communities in Central Texas; and the annual HousingWorks Summit has become a critical space for lifting up national best practices and expanding partnerships to address affordability. Nora was recognized as Austin’s “Affordability Champion” in 2023 and a woman “Pioneering the Path” in Austin Real Estate in 2024. Nora will immediately transition to a consulting role, serving as Finance and Fundraising Advisor for HousingWorks Austin.
“It is a bittersweet moment to step down from leading an organization that I love after 10 years of devotion, of which seven of them were as Executive Director,” said Nora. “Together we have accomplished so much in our affordable housing world. Now it is time to turn it over to the next generation to continue the work.”
Awais takes the helm of the organization as Austin approaches the twentieth anniversary of the approval of the first Affordable Housing Bonds in 2006. HousingWorks Austin was formed that same year as a broad-based coalition with the mission to expand affordable housing opportunities for all. Since then, the organization has been devoted to providing access to quality affordable housing for low-income households and to stemming housing displacement impacts, particularly among vulnerable tenants, senior homeowners on fixed incomes, and historically marginalized communities of color. HousingWorks plays a critical role in educating residents and policymakers about the state of the region and is known for producing annual scorecards and analyses of affordable housing within each Austin City Council district and surrounding counties.
“HousingWorks Austin has played a critical role in Austin’s journey to become a more equitable city of opportunity for everyone,” said Founding Board Chair Frances Ferguson, who has been involved since 2006. “We are proud to have brought forward the housing bonds, accountability for those bonds, density bonuses, and other policy tools which have helped to produce thousands of affordable homes. Awais is a remarkably knowledgeable and talented leader who will help us write our next chapter.”
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HousingWorks Austin is an affordable housing advocacy organization based in Austin and Travis County that aims to increase the supply of affordable housing by providing research, education, advocacy and thoughtful, workable affordable housing policy recommendations.
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