Austin’s latest housing move lands close to home for Mueller. The City Council has approved a resolution directing the city manager to map, assess, and seek funding to preserve older, naturally occurring affordable housing — apartments that are affordable without subsidies and that many working families rely on. The action puts a sharper focus on stemming unit losses that ripple across East Austin and affect renters and employers in and around Mueller, according to the City of Austin.

What the council did

The resolution instructs the Office of the City Manager to create an inventory of at-risk properties, identify code and safety issues that could trigger displacement, and propose ways to finance preservation of deeply affordable units, according to the City of Austin. District 10 Council Member Marc Duchen, who led the effort, said the city lacks coordination on NOAH preservation. “We recognize that there’s really no real coordination around how the city approaches NOAH properties,” Duchen told the Austin Free Press.

At a Sept. 9 work session, Assistant City Manager Eric Johnson described a model the city could adapt. As a Dallas official, he helped launch a housing fund seeded with $6 million in 2022 that leveraged philanthropy to exceed $40 million, with a $100 million goal. “Every American city should have a NOAH strategy,” Johnson said at the meeting, according to the City of Austin.

Why now

Losses are mounting. The demolition of the Acacia Cliffs apartments earlier this year — approved under the city’s DB90 program — will result in a net loss of 210 affordable units, according to reporting from the Austin Free Press. DB90 allows extra height — buildings over 90 feet in some cases — in exchange for 10% to 12% on-site affordable units, but the council last year removed language that would have required replacement of demolished affordable units in such projects, the Free Press reported. The Texas Attorney General’s Office recently upheld the city’s request to withhold documents related to the removal of that language, according to the Austin Free Press.

City staff say preservation could stabilize a sizable share of Austin’s housing. Johnson told council that Austin has roughly 28,375 NOAH units in 789 buildings, sheltering about 6% of all households, citing an inventory estimate from CoStar Real Estate. Overall, Austin has an estimated 475,680 households, and 57% rent their homes, according to the U.S. Census.

The market backdrop Mueller residents are seeing

Home values have cooled from their pandemic peak, which could give the city a window to acquire or help rehab older apartments. Austin’s typical home value has fallen year over year, data show, according to Zillow. Prices have softened across many ZIP codes as inventory rises and demand normalizes, Axios has reported. Duchen said the adjustment may help preservation pencil out. “Rents are down and there’s a glut of multifamily,” he told the Austin Free Press, adding that land prices may be as low as they’ll be for some time.

For Mueller — a mixed-use district where many residents rent and where neighborhood employers rely on a regional workforce — stabilizing older apartments across East and Northeast Austin can ease displacement pressures and keep service and healthcare workers closer to jobs.

Tools on the table, and limits

City staff are expected to return with options. Preservation approaches used elsewhere include acquisition-rehab funds, long-term affordability covenants, and community land trusts that remove properties from speculative markets, according to the National Housing Trust. Cities also use density bonuses to trade additional height or floor area for affordable units, though programs must be carefully calibrated and enforce long-term affordability, according to Inclusionary Housing.

Austin’s DB90 incentives face new uncertainty after a state law took effect Sept. 1. Under Senate Bill 840, developers in larger Texas cities can build housing in many commercial or mixed-use zones without securing residential rezonings, potentially bypassing local density bonus programs, according to the Texas Legislature. Duchen told the Austin Free Press that “from what I can tell, DB90 is effectively dead,” and he expects the council to overhaul density bonuses in the spring.

Housing advocates have urged the city to recalibrate incentives. “It is truly heartbreaking what happened to the families at Acacia Cliffs,” Community Not Commodity board member Chris Page said, calling on council to prioritize reworking density bonuses, according to the Austin Free Press.

What this means for Mueller

Older apartments across East Austin act as a pressure valve for rent growth. Preserving them could:

  • Protect a share of the city’s 28,000-plus NOAH units that house working families who staff Mueller’s clinics, retail, and restaurants, according to CoStar Real Estate and the U.S. Census.
  • Reduce displacement risk tied to code-triggered evictions by pairing repairs with long-term affordability commitments, according to the National Housing Trust.
  • Leverage a cooler market to buy or stabilize properties before rents rebound, according to Zillow and Axios.

Accountability and timing

Public testimony was largely supportive, but several speakers pressed for clearer timelines. “Directives without deadlines are like budget recommendations without dollar amounts. They look good but when will action begin?” Monica Guzmán, policy director at Go Austin Vamos Austin, testified, according to the Austin Free Press. Johnson told council, “In Dallas, we moved at rocket speed,” according to the City of Austin.

Acacia resident Eric Gomez said he is cautiously optimistic the resolution is a step in the right direction but wants follow-through. He told the Austin Free Press that while relocation benefits are “very generous,” he needs “a place where I can live that’s affordable to me at my salary level.”

Policy literature suggests the city could adopt firm milestones and public reporting to ensure momentum — for example, delivering an inventory and risk map, launching a preservation pilot, and tracking preserved units and covenant durations — while aligning any incentives with state law, according to Inclusionary Housing and the National Housing Trust.

What comes next

The resolution sets a framework but not deadlines. Duchen said he asked staff to provide NOAH analyses “in the coming days,” and city leaders expect to revisit density bonuses this spring, according to the Austin Free Press. For Mueller residents, the near-term question is whether the city can move quickly enough to keep existing affordable apartments in place — before another Acacia Cliffs forces families to move farther from jobs, schools, and transit.

Read the press release on austinfreepress.org.