About Austin Housing Coalition

The Austin Housing Coalition (formerly Austin CHDO Roundtable) is a coalition of nonprofit agencies and other interested organizations, businesses, and citizens who support the development of safe affordable housing for Austin residents. The Austin Housing Coalition serves and advocates on behalf of the needs of Austin’s low income populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, both chronically and non-chronically homeless, veterans, teens aging out of foster care, single-headed households with children, and low-income students.

To learn more about us, click here to view our membership profile.

OUR LEADERSHIP:

  • CHAIR: Abby Tatkow, O-SDA Industries/Saigebrook Development 
  • VICE CHAIR: Alice Woods, Broadleaf Community Consulting
  • SECRETARY:  Jon Hagar, Forge Craft Architecture & Design
  • TREASURER: Michael Wilt, Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation
  • AT-LARGE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
    • Greg Anderson, Austin Habitat for Humanity
    • Brittany Baize
    • Conor Kenny, Capital A Housing
    • Rachel Stone, Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation
    • David Dinoff, Strategic HFC
    • Jason Haskins, Foundation Communities

Committees:

Policy & Advocacy Committee
The Policy & Advocacy Committee leads AHC’s engagement on local and state housing policy. We track legislation, provide testimony, coordinate advocacy campaigns, and work directly with policymakers and city staff to advance policies that increase affordable housing production and preservation. This committee monitors Land Development Code changes, affordability programs, and housing funding mechanisms while representing the coalition’s voice in key policy discussions.

Co-chairs:

Development Process Committee
The Development Process Committee works directly with City of Austin departments to streamline affordable housing development and remove regulatory barriers. Through regular coordination meetings with Austin Energy, Austin Fire Department, Development Services, and other city agencies, we educate staff about affordable housing needs and help solve process bottlenecks. Our goal is to make it faster, easier, and more cost-effective to build affordable housing in Austin.

Co-chairs:

Organizational Stewardship Committee
The Organizational Stewardship Committee ensures AHC’s organizational health and sustainability. We manage fundraising, plan engaging member events, coordinate our monthly General Member Meetings, and oversee the coalition’s budget. This committee focuses on growing and supporting our membership, fostering community among housing stakeholders, and ensuring AHC has the resources needed to advance our mission.

Co-chairs:

Affordable Housing Locator Tool Taskforce (Special Committee)
The Affordable Housing Locator Tool Taskforce will oversee the pilot of the Affordable Housing Locator. We coordinate with Nonprofit Navigator, our partner in developing the tool, and property managers who provide listings.

Chair:

HISTORY:

The Austin CHDO Roundtable, now the Austin Housing Coalition, formed in 2003 as several nonprofit housing organizations began working with the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce on a short-lived initiative called Project American Dream. This project proposed delivering vacant, tax-delinquent properties into the hands of capable nonprofits for development as affordable housing. It was expected that the newly formed CHDO Roundtable would make recommendations to Travis County about which Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs) should have priority acquiring the properties. As this effort faded away, the Roundtable turned its focus on establishing an Affordable Housing Capacity Building Program to increase the number of CHDOs in Austin and to expand the capacity of existing CHDOs. The Roundtable worked throughout 2004 with the City of Austin’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Office (NHCDO) and with Washington Mutual (WAMU) to establish the Capacity Building Program and, in January 2005, WAMU awarded the Roundtable $45,000 to administer the program. This funding, remarkably, supplemented by membership dues, has sustained the organization’s efforts to this day!

The first fruits of the Roundtable’s labors were realized on April 18, 2005 when WAMU, the Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), and the Enterprise Foundation publicly announced grant awards of $256,000 to ten local non-profits. The same year, as part of its Capacity Building Program, the Roundtable co-sponsored training sessions on “Property Tax Exemptions for Nonprofit Affordable Housing,” “Roles and Responsibilities of Boards of Nonprofit Organizations”, a “Needs Assessment of Nonprofit Housing Organizations,” and a forum for nonprofit and for-profit housing developers to share ideas about the challenges of developing affordable housing.

2006 was a key year for the Austin CHDO Roundtable as it played an active role in Austin’s first affordable housing bond election, resulting in $55 million in funding for affordable housing development. It also helped secure the passage of the House Bill 525, enabling Homestead Preservation Districts in Texas, and it participated in a working group studying Community Land Trusts. By mid-2006, with over 25 member organizations, the Roundtable formally incorporated. The goal of expanding the capacity of nonprofits working to provide affordable housing and services to the residents of Austin and Central Texas continues to this day. In 2015, the Austin CHDO Roundtable changed its name to the Austin Housing Coalition because the narrowly defined term CHDO no longer seemed appropriate for an organization with ever-expanding membership and participation and with priorities that reached beyond the production of affordable housing.

Collaborations:

We collaborate with HousingWorks on the local level to advocate for issues affecting affordable housing in our community and with the Austin Home Repair Coalition to address home repair needs in our community. On the state level, we partner with Texas Low Income Housing Information Service (TXLIHIS) and Texas Association of Community Development Corporations (TACDC) to present information about legislative activity concerning affordable housing.