Austin moves to slow displacement, preserve thousands ...

Officials are moving to preserve "naturally occurring" affordable housing across Austin through a new public fund intended to rapidly grow over the coming years with support from private sources.

“That’s part of the value here, is that we’re able to take a minimum amount of city resources and build on that over a period of time to create a large program to basically prevent displacement," said council member Marc Duchen, who proposed the program.

The setup

Since the 2000s, Austin has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars on developing income-restricted housing available at lower rents or purchase prices. Some city housing funds have also been spent on land for future construction or the acquisition of residential properties with cheaper housing.

In part given the wide cost