AUSTIN, Texas — Homeowners at risk of being displaced by Project Connect will soon get more help thanks to another $10 million from the city of Austin.
The city's Housing Department, along with the Austin Housing Finance Corporation, announced that they would give an additional $10.9 million to their Project Connect Community Initiated Solutions (CIS) partners.
The 13 CIS partners have been working to provide anti-displacement services for Austinites who will be most affected by the transit expansion.
"There's this huge fear that a lot of our community would be displaced because of property taxes and gentrification,” said Susanna Ledesma Woody, the president of the Del Valle Community Coalition.
The Del Valle Community Coalition is just one of the organizations helping homeowners keep their footing while the landscape around them changes. They assist with mortgages, offering homeowners up to $4,000 a year, and educating residents on how to be better homeowners.
“We're trying to create generational wealth,” Woody said. “With this additional funding, we can expand for another three years.”
They were awarded $1.1 million for the first round of their Homeowner Resilience Program and were given more than $1.2 million to continue that program for the next three years. The program also provides tax exemption and financial workshops for homeowners.
To receive assistance from the Homeowner Resilience Program, you have to be a homeowner, live within one mile of the proposed new Project Connect lines and be considered at risk for displacement. You also have to be 80% or below the Median Family Income level and attend 10 hours of education classes provided by the Del Valle coalition. You can find the application online.
Life Anew Restorative Justice is another organization that was awarded $2 million in the first round of funding. That money went toward its Anti-Displacement Property Ownership program, helping homeowners with estate planning and understanding more about land ownership.
“We're realizing ... it's important for families to be able to pass on generational wealth, and oftentimes that's done through property ownership,” said Sherwynn Patton, the co-executive director of Life Anew.
He said without having a clear deed and communicating with the next generation, those assets are usually lost. With more people getting priced out of Austin, Patton wants to make sure the area doesn’t lose its culture.
“What we're looking for is for us to make sure that we secure the culture, that we celebrate the culture, and that we give people a sense of belonging here in Austin so that we don't have a dwindling Black population in the city,” Patton said.
Other organizations included in the partners include Meals on Wheels Central Texas, helping senior renters and homeowners, and Goodwill, enrolling people in workforce training to secure jobs with increased wages.
The full list of organizations with the services they provide is on the city’s website.
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