On Thursday October 16th the Austin City Council will take up the issue of creating the Homestead Preservation District. This will create a funding mechanism for the purpose of creating and maintaining affordable housing in East Austin.
The Homestead Preservation Districts and Reinvestment Zones Statute provides tools to help ease the ill effects of gentrification, including a Homestead Preservation District, land trust, land bank and tax increment reinvestment zone that directs a portion of increased property tax collections in the district for the development and preservation of affordable housing.
While the law passed over three years ago Austin is only now getting around to consider implementing it.
A report on the amount of tax increment revenue potentially available for creating and maintaining affordable housing prepared by Capital Market Research shows over $48 million will be available to the city over the next 20 years. In addition to city funds the district is expected to attrct a similar amount of funding from the county.
