As the city of Austin keeps growing and changing, there is a push to help more Austinites stay in their homes.
AUSTIN, Texas — For 40 years, Alice Salazar has lived in the Montopolis neighborhood, but she now worries about what may happen in the future.
“With all the new houses getting built, a lot of people’s taxes are going up and stuff,” Salazar said. “My mom, being an elderly person, is exempt but the day that she has to go or something, I would be like in that situation where I’m like ‘Which way do I go?'”
Fears of Austinites getting priced out is why Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes launched the Displacement Prevention Navigator Program in 2023. The program provided resources to help people stay in their homes with the help of paid workers or “Navigators,” who were people recruited from the neighborhoods they served.
At first, the program focused on two neighborhoods at risk of displacement: Dove Springs and Colony Park.
“For a lot of folks, it’s just understanding, you know, how can they file for a homestead exemption? How can they get rental assistance in an emergency basis? How can they get you know help on a down payment for their house?” Fuentes said.
Now, the city council has voted to make this a permanent program and expand it to Montopolis. City leaders dedicated more than $500,000 to the program. Now, two partners – the outreach ministry El Buen Samaritano and public engagement firm Cortez Consulting Services – will be running it.
A new service residents will also get is a case manager who can provide one-on-one assistance.
“I want to see hundreds of Austinites that are served by these resources, and that we can say to our community, ‘We have kept more Austinites living in Austin,'” Fuentes said.
It is help that Salazar believes is sorely needed.
“We need a lot of resources,” Salazar said.
It is a call for help that is now being answered.
Outreach and case management support for the program is expected to begin this December. For more information, click here.