High eviction rates, homelessness among topics at city's annual fair housing conference
AUSTIN (KXAN)— The city of Austin Hosted its third annual Fair Housing Conference and Resource Hub on Wednesday.
A number of topics were discussed:
- Fundamentals of Fair Housing
- Evolution of Housing in Austin
- Fair Housing Legal Updates
- The Untold Story of Evictions in Austin, Texas
- Innovation and Strategies to Address Homelessness
- Travis County Analysis of Impediments of Fair Housing
- Fair Housing Testing
- Fair Housing Reasonable Accommodation/Modifications
- Changes in Real Estate Commissions and How it Affects Buyers
Tara Emerald, a new resident in Austin attended with her daughter.
"I'm just concerned about the affordability for buying a home," Emerald said. "It did concern me for a moment, that checking a box might be concerning...There's still segregation here, and it's very apparent."
It's something she learned more about at Wednesday's conference.
"When we're talking about fair housing, is truly understanding who's experiencing what in the city of Austin," Dr. Lindsey Wilson, director of the office of equity and inclusion, said.
Wilson said the eviction rate in Austin is the highest it's been in a decade.
Housing advocate nonprofit, Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA) Austin, now has a dashboard it launched tracking these evictions in Austin and Travis County. And it also recently published a related report.
"Our Black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately impacted by evictions," Wilson said. "Women with children and low income residents."
That's why Wilson said it's so important to have conferences like this, getting all stakeholders and community leaders in one room to have these conversations and share resources.