Affordability Action Plan

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Ellen Troxclair
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm

Affordability Action Plan

Post by Ellen Troxclair »

Colleagues,

Today I am excited to present an item that I have been working on for many months now, with the valued support of my co-sponsors on Council and a diverse coalition of community leaders.

It’s no secret that we are at a critical point in our city when it comes to affordability. Austinites have given us a clear mandate to address the rapidly rising cost of living in Austin in order to slow gentrification, address economic segregation, keep long-time residents in their homes and enable seniors and the rest of us to remain in our great City.

In light of this, I realized it was critical to make a pact with the community about how dedicated this Council is, and will continue to be, to addressing affordability. Thank you to the Mayor and to Council Members Flannigan, Houston, and Kitchen for their help and support in crafting our Affordability Action Plan.

As we know, affordability is a complex and multifaceted subject. Its meaning, and how to best address it, often lies in the perspective of those pondering the issue. As a Council, we have been elected by different constituencies with different priorities when it comes to affordability. I believe that we have more goals in common than not, and I’m hoping that this Affordability Action Plan will allow us to come together as a group and attack our affordability issues from several different angles.

Among those in the community who have been central and critical to this effort are groups as diverse as One Voice Central Texas and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. These groups - with the dedication of many others - came together, acknowledged each other’s positions, and intentionally began an effort to develop this social pact, an affordability omnibus.

Thus far, this effort has earned the support of the Austin Independent Business Alliance, Austin Branch NAACP, One Voice Central Texas, Greater Austin Chamber, Home Builder’s Association of Austin, Austin Regional Manufacturer’s Association, Downtown Austin Alliance, Austin Technology Council, Goodwill Central Texas, US Hispanic Contractors Association, Greater Asian Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Council of Austin, and Associated General Contractors of Greater Austin.

With the help and guidance of my colleagues on Council, we have expanded on what these organizations started in order to put together an Affordability Action Plan that lays out how we intend to address our affordability crisis, including acknowledging ongoing initiatives as well as identifying new ones. Although this plan doesn’t include every possible measure we might eventually undertake, I hope that we have compiled a package that allows us to find consensus and move the ball forward more quickly.

Among many other measures, this Affordability Action Plan includes ways to reform the way the City determines its budget, highlights our housing needs, and provide opportunities for our locally-owned, small businesses to thrive.

While my co-sponsors have been over every detail together in order to compile a document that we can all be proud to stand behind, I wanted to share it with the rest of council as soon as possible. We will be hosting a press conference on Thursday at 9:00 a.m., prior to the Council meeting. I invite you to join us and other community leaders there. I look forward to your comments, and am hopeful that we will gain your support.

Resolution - http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 02540.docx
Affordability Action Plan - http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 01943.docx

Kindly,


Ellen Troxclair
Ellen Troxclair
Council Member District 8
Ann Kitchen
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:04 pm

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Ann Kitchen »

CM Troxclair

Thank you for helping us all move forward on giving some structure to the affordability measures we have been working on. I appreciate the work that the community groups you mentioned have been engaged in to help the community move forward to address our affordability crisis.

I wanted to also thank the Regional Affordability Committee, initiated and chaired by CM Garza, for their work last year with our regional partners to adopt a Strategic Affordability Plan, in part using the community engagement and research incorporated into Liveable City's report: Reclaiming Affordability in Today's Austin 2016. I will be proposing that we include some of the work of this committee in the resolution presented to Council

You can read the Liveable City Report here:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 163339.pdf

You can read the Regional Affordability Report here:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 165041.pdf

Best Regards

Ann Kitchen
City Council D5
Ann Kitchen
Council Member District 5
Ellen Troxclair
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Ellen Troxclair »

Good morning CM Kitchen,

Thank you so much for your ongoing support for the work of affordability, and for your valued comments.

I would like to echo your support of the Regional Affordability Committee, led by our colleague, CM Garza, for its strong work on affordability issues. When putting this initiative together, I envisioned it as complementary to the strong work already being done by the Committee. The Affordability Action Plan does contain some language that refers to the Committee's work and its Strategic Plan, and I will include additional language to further commend and acknowledge the work that has been done.

Thank you again for this contribution, and I'm eager to continue working with you further as this affordability initiative is refined.


Ellen Troxclair
Ellen Troxclair
Council Member District 8
Ellen Troxclair
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Ellen Troxclair »

Colleagues,

Thank you again for your comments during work session. My colleagues and I have worked together to add new language to both the resolution and the action plan that we hope will address some of the concerns that were raised.

Links to a red-line version of both the resolution and the action plan are below. We edited the language to more clearly point out the efforts that are already ongoing, explicitly state that each new item will have to come back to council for final approval, tied the action plan back to our ongoing efforts towards our strategic goals, added language to give the city manager more flexibility with an effective tax rate budget illustration, and removed a couple of items that were questioned under transportation. We hope that this is responsive to your comments, but please feel free to post any additional suggestions.

Whether it be addressing the rising cost of living, prioritizing health and human service contracts for our most vulnerable residents, or reforming our approach to economic incentives, we hope that the way they all affect affordability will help everyone to support the plan.


Resolution - http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 73759.docx
Action Plan - http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 74110.docx


Thank you!
Ellen Troxclair
Ellen Troxclair
Council Member District 8
Ellen Troxclair
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:26 pm

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Ellen Troxclair »

It has been brought to my attention that the Resolution link may not be working properly. I have included another link below and will be passing out the language on the dais shortly.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 104617.doc
Ellen Troxclair
Council Member District 8
Marti Bier
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:43 am

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Marti Bier »

Good Afternoon,

Council Member Flannigan will be proposing an amendment to the Affordability Action Plan. His amendment has been distributed to all Council Members on the dais. You can view the amendment electronically here:

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 152217.doc

Thanks,
Marti Bier
Chief of Staff, D6
Chief of Staff
Office of Council Member Flannigan, District 6
Steve Adler
Posts: 533
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:12 pm

Re: Affordability Action Plan

Post by Steve Adler »

Council Members,

I plan to introduce the following amendment to Item #32. These changes are consistent with changes to item #34.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Vu3 ... TFqS3RDRkU
Mayor
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