AUSTIN, Texas — Civil rights and East Austin leaders gathered on Martin Luther King Day to ask the City of Austin to enact specific recommendations for an effective anti-displacement program for areas vulnerable to gentrification.
Civil rights leaders said in a press release they wanted to "honor Dr. King's legacy of economic justice and civil rights by asking the City of Austin take specific action now to overcome its long history of displacing people of color."
"Even though we lived in poverty, we were a neighborhood and the word 'neighbor' meant something," said Kenneth Thompson Sr., who grew up in East Austin and has seen a lot of change in the community. "The closing of Anderson High School was the birth of gentrification in Austin, Texas."
Now, rganizations like People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) are asking City leaders to step in.
"The land development code only looks at numbers, height, setbacks and those types of regulations," said PODER founder Susanna Almanza. "It doesn't look at the humane impact."
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This is part of the reason why the group is asking the Mayor and City Council to consider and adopt now a four-point, comprehensive anti-displacement program:
- Delay zoning changes in vulnerable East Austin areas and provide the time to get the anti-displacement program right.
- Engage vulnerable, lower-income communities in expanding and creating neighborhood plans to prevent displacement.
- Establish a comprehensive, equitable development plan.
- Appropriates substantial, sustainable funding and staffing to tackle displacement.
The new code is supposed to help address Austin's housing problem. It determines what can be built, how it can be built and where it can be built in our city.
The proposed new code aims to fix what's called "the missing middle," which is the gap between high-rise condos and single-family homes. The code would allow zoning for duplexes, tri-plexes and townhomes.
"I dare you to find a single block in the city of Austin in which the rent and house prices have reduced from what was there originally," explained La Raza Roundtable leader Jane Rivera
Activists are afraid that, without a detailed anti-displacement program, the disadvantaged will continue to be pushed out.
"What happens to the landowners, renters, low income and people of color who are forced to live on the east crescent," asked Almanza.
The coalition proposed an $18 million anti-displacement program budget for the fiscal year 2020 to council, which wasn’t considered but they want to continue to try.
"Nothing is going to get done unless you put the money into it," explained Frank Rodriguez with the Development Without Displacement Coalition. "Similar to what they did with homelessness where they invested $70-plus million."
The final vote on changing the land development code is scheduled to happen in March but, if this group has their way, it could be delayed.
"Austin still has to be the potential to be an inclusive place where we all feel we have access to a quality of life," said Thompson. "I fear that Austin will lose its texture and the fabric that has made Austin what it is today."
He added, "We need that same laser focus that the city manager talked about for gentrification and displacement."
The city council will meet Monday to discuss the revised land development code, which still needs to be approved two more times by the city council before it becomes an ordinance.
The press conference was held at Mount Olive Baptist Church in East Austin.
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