Austin-based Housing Advocacy Group AURA to Work with Airbnb to Advance Pro-Housing Reforms as Part of Larger Airbnb Housing Accelerator Launch
Key Takeaways
- Airbnb is donating to and partnering with AURA and other advocacy organizations to enact pro-housing reforms as part of the Airbnb Housing Accelerator.
- Airbnb will support local housing advocacy leaders on the ground advocating for reforms that make housing easier to build in their communities.
For more than a decade, AURA has advocated for and helped to pass meaningful pro-housing reform in Austin, Texas, entirely driven by our all-volunteer grassroots membership. In the past few years, AURA has mobilized grassroots support for the City of Austin’s HOME initiatives, which encouraged more starter homes, as well as reforms ending parking mandates and relaxing height limitations that reduced the supply of multifamily housing. Recently, AURA has focused on making it easier to build “Missing Middle” housing, including fourplexes, townhomes, and neighborhood-scale apartments.
In an effort to secure these victories and create a more durable, professional organization, AURA has sought outside support to hire its first paid employee. AURA’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce Airbnb’s partnership in this effort. Airbnb’s leadership understands that durable change requires modernizing the rules that make it too expensive, too slow, and too difficult to build. AURA is one organization participating in Airbnb’s Housing Accelerator program, as new partnerships with local organizations across the country support the fight to enact pro-housing reforms, including zoning, permitting, impact fee, and building code changes.
While Austin has made tremendous progress in making it easier to build homes, there is still much work to be done to create a city with abundant affordable homes in walkable neighborhoods where everyone is welcome. AURA’s partnership with Airbnb will help AURA professionalize and solidify gains and continue to advocate for housing solutions that work for all Austinites—young and old, rich and poor, renter and homeowner, citizen and immigrant, lifelong resident and new arrival.
More information on AURA’s work is available at www.aura-atx.org. More information on this partnership and other policy solutions is available in The Airbnb Housing Accelerator: Tackling the Housing Crisis, a new report issued today highlighting reforms that make housing more available and affordable.
“Organizations like AURA are essential to advancing real policy solutions for affordable housing across Austin. That’s why Airbnb, through our Housing Accelerator initiative, is proud to also partner with groups like AURA addressing specific housing challenges on the ground. At Airbnb, we believe that when nonprofits, businesses and government leaders come together in partnership, we can build stronger, more resilient communities,” said Daniel Hornung, Director of the Airbnb Housing Accelerator.
“AURA is grateful to Airbnb for their partnership and commitment to strengthening communities here in Austin. For more than a decade, we have advanced reforms to address the root cause of Austin’s housing crisis: the simple fact that we have made it too difficult to build enough homes for everyone. Airbnb has been a real partner in working with communities to address that issue head on, and we welcome their generous support for the work we do to advance pro-housing policies,” said Zach Faddis, President of AURA.