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Housing staff and advocates urge reforms to Austin’s affordability-impact statement process

3151415 · April 29, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Housing Department staff described the city’s affordability impact statement (AIS) process—created under the Smart Housing ordinance in 2007—and proposed improvements. Community groups proposed a broader AIS scorecard covering transit, displacement risk, equity and other non-construction impacts.

City of Austin housing staff and a representative of the Austin Housing Coalition briefed the Housing and Planning Committee on the city’s Affordability Impact Statement (AIS) process and proposed changes meant to improve public transparency and better capture nonconstruction affordability impacts.

Rachel Tepper, principal planner in the Housing Department, outlined the current AIS process and its origins in the 2007 Smart Housing ordinance. “The AIS is not intended to be about proposing outcomes or proposing solutions. It’s really just to review to see if there is an affordability impact,” Tepper said.

What the AIS does today - Intake and scope: sponsoring departments submit an intake form describing proposed rule or code changes, stakeholder engagement and schedule. - Focus areas: Housing staff review three categories: land use…

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