The 89th session of the Texas Legislature concluded earlier this summer, and it was a big one for pro-housing reforms! AURA teamed up with a bipartisan coalition of state-focused groups like Texans for Housing and Texans for Reasonable Solutions, among many others, to support a slate of bills which take effect today and that will have a significant impact on the future of housing affordability not only in Austin, but statewide.
These bills, which had broad bipartisan support and bipartisan sponsors, included:
- SB 840, which makes mixed-use or multifamily development a by-right use in commercial districts (for larger Texas cities)
- HB 24, which reformed the valid petition process, also known as the “tyrant’s veto,” a tool used extensively in Austin by a minority of property owners to block housing and comprehensive updates to our land development code
- SB 15, which reduces the minimum lot size municipalities can impose on subdivisions over 5 acres, making it easier to build starter homes
- SB 2477, which reduces roadblocks to office-to-residential conversions
- SB 1567, which reforms occupancy limits targeted at students in Texas college towns
- SB 2835, which allows small-scale, single-stair apartment buildings up to six stories legal in Texas
Two additional bills supported by AURA didn’t make it across the finish line. The “Yes In God’s Backyard” bill, which would have allowed religious organizations to build housing on underutilized property, and a bill legalizing accessory dwelling units (aka ADUs, casitas, or granny flats) both failed.
Nevertheless, the passage of so many pro-housing bills was unprecedented and was only possible with significant work from coalition partners and our own members!
Over the course of the session, AURA volunteers helped to support the passage of these bills in a number of ways:
- AURA members attended statewide coalition meetings building partnerships and connections designed to strengthen our immediate and long term advocacy efforts.
- We visited the offices of Austin-area state senators and representatives and members of key committees like the Senate Local Government Committee and the House Land & Resource Management Committee, discussing with their staffs how these bills would promote housing affordability across the state.
- We wrote personal letters to Austin’s city leadership and the Austin state delegation to urge them to support the bills.
- Members delivered public testimony in support of the bills at hearings of the Senate Local Government Committee and the House Land & Resource Management Committee
- With Texans for Housing, we co-hosted a “Hamburgers & Housing” event featuring the P. Terry’s Burger Truck, where members had the opportunity to connect with legislative staffers about the slate of bills over free burgers and fries.
- We communicated closely with AURA members and friends working as staff during the session, raising the profile and salience of our bills with those inside the legislative process.
- We participated in email campaigns, amounting to hundreds of letters sent to lawmakers over the course of the session.
- With the Austin Housing Coalition and the Dallas Housing Coalition, AURA also co-hosted the Housing Under the Dome Day, a day of advocacy, networking, and camaraderie at the Texas Legislature, including lunch at Scholz Garten and happy hour at Las Perlas.
All told, our efforts paid off! These reforms are being hailed across the country as some of the most ambitious legislation to tackle housing affordability yet.
Over the last decade, AURA has been at the forefront of housing reform here in Austin, and has already achieved local victories on minimum lot size reductions, single-stair reform, occupancy limits, and ADUs, which meant we were well positioned to help state leaders understand the critical need for these reforms.
Happily, SB 840 goes beyond anything we’ve been able to achieve locally and offers an opportunity to radically simplify Austin’s commercial zoning code, while HB 24, as a state statute, could only have been fixed at the state level. Both will make it possible to house more Austinites in the urban core, but more importantly, these reforms will make it a little easier to build more homes in cities across the state, easing pressure on any single jurisdiction.
Housing affordability is a collective action problem, and no single city can solve it on its own. This session, Texas lawmakers recognized that fact and took major steps toward breaking the housing impasse. We are grateful to our tireless volunteers, AURA members, and our statewide coalition partners for their efforts and delighted to see what happens next with these transformative changes.