https://www.richforaustin.org/blog daily 0.75 2026-04-01 https://www.richforaustin.org/blog/austins-housing-shortage-myth-or-reality monthly 0.5 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/4e252db2-7e00-498e-baeb-641aa8656c3d/1.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Example of a local news story linking zoning reforms to housing supply and cost. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/cb236635-4d9b-4ae8-a8eb-8e1ceeecf561/2.jpeg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Examples of stories proclaiming a national housing shortage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/e961f283-2a06-430d-bcbc-00412debd723/3.jpeg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - It is common in discussions of the housing crisis to hear that the production of housing has not kept up with population growth. For example, in their wildly popular book, Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson claim that “in the late 1970s, home construction started to fall behind the pace of population growth” (page 25). Their major evidence for this claim is a comparison of the average number of housing units per 1,000 people between OECD countries (the 38 most industrialized countries) and the US, showing that the US has a much lower rate than Germany, France, Japan, etc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/873de082-86a6-4aa7-a522-138d761388c8/4.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Housing units per 1,000 people in the U.S., 1950-2024. Graph by the author. Data from US Decennial Censuses. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/584ad6f4-d4aa-4ee1-87cd-48bf0d227ab9/5.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Percentage Change in U.S. housing units and population growth, 1940-2020. Graph by the author. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/2b612808-34e7-4944-856d-3bd8fe867bbb/6.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out From Jared Bernstein, Michael Negron, and Natalie Baker (2025) Build, Baby, Build: A Plan to Lower Housing costs for All. November 17, 2025. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/build-baby-build-a-plan-to-lower-housing-costs-for-all/. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/49bacc53-4c2f-4205-b7a3-e6bb94b35560/7.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out From Elena Patel, Aastha Rajan, and Natalie Tomeh (2024) Make it count: Measuring our housing supply shortage. November 26, 2024. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/make-it-count-measuring-our-housing-supply-shortage/. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/9255b91e-5331-4c75-9789-664e71272137/8.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Page from Up For Growth (2024) Housing Underproduction in the U.S., showing their members/funders. https://upforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024_Housing-Underproduction-in-the-U.S.-Report_Final-c-1.pdf. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/085b8a26-8d2f-4ff2-b64a-353b95bb8dc9/9.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out From Elena Patel, Aastha Rajan, and Natalie Tomeh (2024) Make it count: Measuring our housing supply shortage. November 26, 2024. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/make-it-count-measuring-our-housing-supply-shortage/. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/11375434-cdc3-4188-b80a-01111a5dcef9/10.jpg Blog - Austin’s Housing Shortage Reality: Follow The Money - Make it stand out Percentage of Vacant “Housing” Units Not For Sale or For Rent, 1965-2024. Graph by the author. https://www.richforaustin.org/blog/lets-be-honest-about-the-impacts-of-home monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/68dbe442-5040-42f6-963d-befa33f0d623/Cover2.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - Well, we’re seeing it again, this time regarding a report from the Development Services Department assessing the impacts of the HOME initiative after its first year of implementation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/1767933381361-XM9JRPTFQ5DUR984YKGM/vanessa+on+HOME.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/1767933550981-WDHJZIDV5J1WCCUKYT73/zo+at+CNA+copy.png Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/ce59d1bc-0c28-4653-90ad-dda2a088ce4a/permits.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - According to the data in the report, infill permits peaked in 2022 at 779 and have been on a steep decline since then, down by more than half to 340 in 2024. The report relies on this fact to claim that HOME has not led to an increase in demolitions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/f92a6f3b-dd02-4bbe-910a-6a32c633d492/rate+of+demos.jpg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - In fact, the data in the report suggests that the rate of demolitions to infill permits seems to have been declining before HOME, down to 88.5 demolitions per 100 infill permits in 2023, but has since jumped to 96.4 demolitions per 100 infill permits. In other words, while total infill permits have decreased, more of them include demolitions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/e0f8defa-7a74-4ad2-9972-7c2ca055739d/risk+area+map.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - The report admits that “HOME applications are concentrated in Displacement Risk Areas,” but it asserts that “this concentration is not significantly greater than that observed in similar zoning districts prior to the adoption of HOME” (page 2). From the data presented in the report, it is not at all clear what the authors mean here. In fact, by any reasonable standard, infill applications have increased significantly in displacement risk areas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/395fa4c2-a3f3-4f9f-a2b9-101a127bf868/pies2.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - Make it stand out The data in the report shows that the percentage of permits in Displacement Risk Areas has increased significantly since HOME, from 58% to 66%. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/b81ceb56-9658-4904-9a38-9e046783d1f0/pre+vs+post+trend.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - The increase is even more apparent if we look at the pre-HOME trend vs. the post-HOME spike: before HOME, from 2021 to 2023, the percent of infill permits in displacement risk areas was declining, to just 56%, but after HOME, it dramatically jumps to 66%. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/04138293-f8d9-45a5-b384-df375da989ea/disparity.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - Using data from the report, we can see that when the number of permits dropped in 2023, they dropped at very similar rates between displacement risk areas and non-risk areas, but after HOME, while all infill permits dropped 27% from the previous year, they dropped 43.6% in non-Risk Areas but only 14.1% in Displacement Risk Areas. The disparity between Risk and non-Risk areas is markedly different after https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/0a320efc-e43e-42e2-aee5-7fb704e4d3c1/preservation+bonus.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - However, later in the report (page 7), we learn that only 3 out of the approved 236 permits opted into the preservation bonus program. Just over 1% of the cases. And they seriously want us to believe that 3 buildings preserved is evidence that HOME is working to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/816abb1c-9391-4932-9cda-689d07abe8a5/market+conditions.jpeg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - The HOME report actually tells us why on page 22: Page 22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/405cdf57-5ac0-4b8e-a001-9c5dc9226a02/overlay+report+cover.jpg Blog - Let’s Be Honest about the Impacts of HOME - A study from the outside consulting firm APD-U concludes, “The HOME Ordinance…has the potential to either narrow or widen existing inequities depending on how it is implemented. While the ordinance broadens development potential, early evidence shows that activity has been concentrated in neighborhoods already burdened by displacement, particularly throughout the Eastern Crescent. To maximize the ordinance’s equitable potential and prevent it from exacerbating existing disparities, Austin must pair HOME with an intentional, data-driven Equity Overlay that embeds anti-displacement strategies, community reinvestment, and accessibility measures into every stage of housing policy” (page 35). https://www.richforaustin.org/blog/why-are-austin-taxpayers-subsidizing-record-revenue-for-southwest-airlines monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/5f94c737-8827-43ec-90cc-b6cdad2741c3/1.jpg Blog - Why are Austin taxpayers subsidizing record revenue for Southwest Airlines? - City of Austin Press Release and KUT Story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/c8c628a7-8cd6-4d2d-a5ac-f38f2262629d/2a.jpg Blog - Why are Austin taxpayers subsidizing record revenue for Southwest Airlines? - Southwest Airlines Press Release https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/1765923634420-Y7SIDAKAT9UMYYLO6ZVS/5.jpg Blog - Why are Austin taxpayers subsidizing record revenue for Southwest Airlines? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/1765923634400-F14PQTFV3QPC2C1VHRW6/4.jpg Blog - Why are Austin taxpayers subsidizing record revenue for Southwest Airlines? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/1765923635420-U23KIKPH7PBOLDRNKOPZ/6.jpg Blog - Why are Austin taxpayers subsidizing record revenue for Southwest Airlines? https://www.richforaustin.org/home daily 1.0 2026-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/3d21499a-8068-4fe2-839d-df656c6fcc84/Rich-Heyman_Outdoors-cropped.jpg https://www.richforaustin.org/contact daily 0.75 2025-09-08 https://www.richforaustin.org/issues daily 0.75 2025-12-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/15ba21a2-4f8a-40c6-881f-899cf835c43e/azarian-mural-austin-close.jpg https://www.richforaustin.org/about-me daily 0.75 2026-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/233b3727-5ca0-41d3-9924-dfee4f64363b/Rich-Heyman-outdoors.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/e802e6c9-6090-4cb1-bdc6-8ecd44c449e1/Rich-Heyman_koop.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/a265e596-ee2b-41f6-90e8-400eba111337/Franklin-and-Denis-Heyman.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/3dc599ee-2615-4a2c-99f8-cbc80f2704b7/Rich-Heyman_protest1.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/90560c69-67e5-4a56-9740-cd58e1ddfd5f/Rich-Heyman_mugshot.JPG https://www.richforaustin.org/my-work daily 0.75 2026-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/812de472-9322-4b13-b90d-efb5a554eab1/Rich-Heyman_i35rally_web.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/68b0bab4c94ae4036d0fffa5/a8e1323d-14f3-4485-8438-99f6c3ba0b33/Rich-Heyman_protest2.JPG https://www.richforaustin.org/new-page daily 0.75 2026-01-02