Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Lihtc Expiration topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Austin committee asks staff to map LIHTC expirations and explore ways to preserve affordability
Summary
The Housing & Planning Committee asked staff to share a district-by-district spreadsheet of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties with upcoming affordability expirations and to brief the committee on possible municipal interventions to prevent conversions to market-rate housing.
Chair Madison, the council member for District 1 and chair of Austin’s Housing & Planning Committee, asked staff Jan. 27 to brief the committee on Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties in Austin whose affordability periods are ending and to identify what, if any, municipal interventions are available.
Madison said the city already catalogs LIHTC properties and that as federal or HUD contracts come to a close ‘‘the complex has the opportunity . . . to convert those units from income restricted to market rate.’’ She asked staff to share the district-by-district spreadsheet with committee members and to circulate it to council colleagues for situational awareness.
‘‘If we know, for example, council member Vela, I’m looking at them as they’re broken out by district,’’ Madison said, citing examples of properties with affordability expirations in 2024, 2025 and 2026. ‘‘By way of us having this data already readily available . . . I wanna see where the opportunity may lie for us to add an additional couple of layers.’’
Council member Vela said he had no new agenda items but welcomed the list and observed some older properties ‘‘may fall into that naturally occurring affordable housing now,’’ a potential mitigating factor as covenants expire.
Council member Ellis asked that the committee receive outcome reporting on related programs at a regular cadence, noting previous initiatives and asking, ‘‘Are we hitting our targets? What are those? And is there any recalibration necessary?’’ Ellis referenced the Home initiative and work on Site Plan Lite, including drainage and utility-review issues, as areas where metrics could inform whether policy changes are needed.
Madison directed staff and the committee liaison to convene appropriate departmental representatives and return with factual, non-editorialized data about permitting, utility reviews, and program outcomes. No formal action or policy was adopted; the item was introduced as a request for staff briefing and information sharing.
Next steps: Madison said she will share the catalog/spreadsheet with committee members and ask staff to circulate it more broadly; the committee expects staff to report back with data and options for potential low-cost, high-impact interventions to preserve affordability.
