AUSTIN, Texas — Central Texas is changing, and with more and more people moving to Travis County, the cost of living is rising.
"Rents are above $1,700 at on average in 2022," said Awais Azhar with HousingWorks Austin.
HousingWorks Austin is a nonprofit that aims to increase the supply of affordable housing in Austin by providing research and education.
Azhar said local organizations and housing departments are trying to build more. The organization recently finished collecting data about affordable housing in Travis County and said there is a real need.
"Last year, we saw 33%, nearly a third of our county, are residents what we call cost-burden, i.e. they are paying more than 30% of household income towards housing needs," Azhar said.
He said there are plans to build more affordable housing in Travis County.
"We can see we have nearly 7,700 subsidized housing units with nearly 3,000 in the planning stages," he said.
For people in affordable housing units, their rent can range based on their income.
"Anywhere from $830 to $1,560, and that is for a family of four," Azhar said.
According to HousingWorks Austin's data, there are more than 7,700 affordable units in the county, not including the city of Austin, which has more than 55,000 units.
Joyce Richardson has lived in Travis County her whole life and is seeing the costs go up.
"It has gone up, pretty much. I don't like it, but there is nothing we can do about it," Richardson said.
Richardson is on a fixed income and is always looking out for her bottom line. She said she was lucky after a long wait to move to La Vista de Guadalupe apartments.
"I had to wait like, five years. I got on the list, a waiting list. It took five years to get here, so when I got here it is a blessing," she said.
The Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation is one of the organizations within Travis County providing lower rent if you qualify.
"When your name comes up, it is a big blessing," Richardson said.
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.