Austin approves $20 million in anti-displacement grants

Austin, Texas, area nonprofits will use funds awarded by the city’s Affordable Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) to reduce residential displacement and create economic mobility opportunities for communities to be impacted by new rail and rapid bus routes along Project Connect transit corridors. 

The AHFC awarded $20 million to 14 area nonprofits with awards varying from more than $250,000 up to $2 million.

Five nonprofits were awarded $2 million in grants including:

• Goodwill Industries of Central Texas’ Connections to Work program that will support economic mobility within impacted areas through workforce programs providing job training for living-wage positions, financial capability services and direct rent/mortgage and utility relief for participants;
• Workers Defense Project’s Building and Strengthening Tenant Action Combatting Displacement Through Tenant and Worker Power that will build tenant resiliency in Project Connect corridors by engaging renters in housing and economic justice organizing campaigns, leveraging Community Benefits Agreements to achieve tangible improvements and building infrastructure to combat displacement;
• Business & Community Lenders’ Austin CLT Accelerator that will grow the capacity of nonprofits to increase community land trust availability and establish long-term affordable homeownership opportunities along Project Connect transit lines;
• El Buen Samaritano’s We Belong Here: Nuestros Hogares that will assist tenants with rent and utilities, provide workforce and asset-building, implement cradle-career education and strengthen cultural anchor capacity and
• The Life Anew Restorative Justice Incorporated's Anti-Displacement Property Ownership, a partnership of Life Anew Restorative Justice, The Langford Firm and NeerGBuild and Design to educate homeowners on land ownership, estate planning, zero energy, financial literacy and housing repairs.

Additional grants were awarded to:

• Interfaith Action of Central Texas’ Financial Education & Literacy Program ($256,650)
• Meals on Wheels Central Texas’ Client Assistance Program ($900,000)
• Austin Voices for Education and Youth’s North Austin/Rundberg Community Stabilization Project ($1,268,000)
• Catholic Charities of Central Texas’ Financial Stability Program ($1,924,000)
• Del Valle Community Coalition’s Homeowner Resilience Program ($1,100,000)
• Communities in School of Central Texas’ Student and Family Assistance: Relational, Timely Support to Prevent Housing Displacement ($1,500,000)
• Austin Cooperative Business Foundation’s Asociaciónde Residentes’ Asociaciónde Residentes/North Lamar Anti-Displacement Improvements ($516,206)
• Austin Tenants Council’s Preserving, Asserting & Growing the Rights of Austin Tenants ($997,310)
• Mama Sana Vibrant Woman’s (MSVW) Rental Assistance for Families of Color in Austin's Eastern Crescent ($1,537,834)

These grants are part of the voter-approved $300 million for transit-supportive anti-displacement housing strategies for Project Connect. All Project Connect anti-displacement funds will focus on preventing displacement in risk areas within one mile of transit lines. These funds support renter/tenant stabilization programs, expand and preserve homeownership opportunities, and undertake a variety of anti-displacement strategies.

“We look to these awards as effective investments to stabilize vulnerable residents,” said Nefertitti Jackmon, city of Austin community displacement prevention officer.