Austin allocates an extra $10.9M for Project Connect anti-displacement efforts

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Almost $11 million in additional funding will support anti-displacement efforts under Austin's Project Connect transportation program, the City of Austin Housing Department and Austin Housing Finance Corporation announced Thursday.

The $10.9 million will be allocated over the next three years to existing Project Connect Community Initiated Solutions (CIS) partners, the release confirmed. Austin City Council approved in September 2022 awarding anti-displacement funding to more than a dozen Central Texas organizations to aid in this work.

Tenant stabilization, home ownership expansion and preservation as well as anti-displacement measures are the three primary focuses of the organizations' anti-displacement initiatives. These community-initiated solutions center on services benefitting renters and homeowners who live within one mile of the Project Connect corridor and who could be impacted by changing real estate values and living costs.

The CIS program began in 2023, connecting with more than 98,000 families "vulnerable to transit-induced displacement," as well as offering financial assistance to more than 1,000 households, per the release. Service efforts created from the anti-displacement funding include:

• Community Land Trust Accelerator program: work alongside community development organizations to help create affordable housing and "generational community ownership opportunities" along the Project Connect transit corridor between 2025 and 2026
• Homeowner programs: in collaboration between the Del Valle Community Coalition and Life Anew Restorative Justice, with programs focused on estate planning, tax exemption workshops and financial services to combat displacement
• Workforce training: Goodwill has helped enroll almost 100 people in trainings to place them in jobs with higher wages
• Communities in Schools and Austin Voices for Education and Youth helped aid more than 500 families with children enrolled in schools along the project corridor
• Meals on Wheels has assisted more than 200 senior renters and homeowners specifically vulnerable to displacement

"Austin has a very unique opportunity. With public support and Project Connect Anti-Displacement funding, we are able to provide services to build the resiliency of Austin families in advance of the future transit investment," said Nefertitti Jackmon, Austin's community displacement prevention officer, in the announcement. "In the past, cities have responded after they have seen the devastating displacement impacts to vulnerable households. Yes, we are starting early, but it is essential if we want to protect Austin households.”

More information on those efforts is available online.