2 affordable housing projects to move forward in Austin with $2 million investment

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two projects geared toward offering 300 new affordable apartment options in Austin received a sizable investment Wednesday that could help them move forward.

The Austin Community Foundation announced that its Housing Accelerator Loan Fund invested $2 million in two affordable housing developments — one in southwest Austin and the other in north Austin.

One million will go toward pre-development at Sunset Ridge, a project that will provide a total of 438 rental units on a property on Southwest Parkway. A majority of those units (220) will be reserved for households earning between 50-80% of the area median income. The loan will be at a 3% rate for a one-year term, according to the Austin Community Foundation.

Sydney Goode, the foundation’s director of investment, explained Wednesday why it’s important to make this loan available at a low interest rate.

“We wanted to make sure that affordable developers were able to utilize our capital and make sure that it was low cost for them because the margins on these projects are already so low,” Goode said. “To be able to help them get from point A to point B, we wanted to make sure we were offering a product that was at a much lower rate than what they’re seeing in the market so that they can be able to utilize it and make sure that these projects pencil out.”

Meanwhile, the other million-dollar loan will help with land acquisition for Cameron Senior Housing, which is set to provide 74 one-bedroom apartments along with support services for older adults. The loan will have a 2.5% rate with a two-year term, according to the Austin Community Foundation. National Church Residences, a nonprofit developer of senior affordable housing, is behind building this project.

Tracey Fine, the senior director for National Church Residences’ Texas office, said the group is also seeking federal funding to make the senior complex a reality.

“Austin, like other major metropolitan areas here in Texas, is really ground zero for the affordable housing crisis, so we know these units are especially needed,” Fine said. “Should we get the funding from HUD, it would also come with many subsidies for those units, so we’d be able to target an extremely vulnerable population as well.”

The Austin Community Foundation shared that its Housing Accelerator Loan Fund is a $15 million pot of money aimed at speeding up the development of more affordable housing in Central Texas. So far the fund provided four loans to date, totaling more than $6 million in support of about 900 new housing units in the Austin area.

Goode said the foundation would like to grow the fund to at least $25 million so that it can assist developers with even more affordable housing projects.

Housing affordability remains a top concern for people across the state. A recent poll from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University found that 90% of Texans said the cost of housing is a problem in their area.

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