A recent study conducted by Harvard University and released last week has put a spotlight on Austin's division of living spaces, revealing a stark segregation between homeowners and renters. As analyzed by U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the Austin metro stands out with one of the highest rates of renter vs. homeowner segregation among cities in the United States. A significant factor in this separation appears to be the presence of "rental deserts," as termed by the researchers. These areas, representing neighborhoods where fewer than one in five homes are rented, account for a third of Austin's neighborhoods.
Research into the underlying causation for such geographic divides has led scholars to scrutinize the city's zoning regulations. The rules that dictate what can be built and where could be pivotal to understanding why certain areas have sparse rental options. "(M)unicipalities that allow greater maximum heights and have more zones that allow multifamily housing by right are also home to neighborhoods with a higher share of rental housing as compared to more restrictive municipalities," the Harvard study pointed to, suggesting that more accommodative zoning policies might quickly start to bridge the gap.
Harvard post-doctoral fellow Magda Maaoui, co-author of the study, offered insights obtained by the Austin Monitor, tying this form of segregation to broader societal divides. The analysis showed that alongside the gap between renters and homeowners, economic segregation often followed suit. This correlation logically extends from the fact that homeownership typically demands greater financial ability, hence aligning with higher income levels. Austin itself registered a heightened rate of income segregation when placed alongside other populous U.S. cities.
The study has sparked reactions among local policymakers, prompting actions to dissolve the barriers to diverse housing development. "Racial segregation and the concentration of poverty can feel like intractable problems that we don’t know how to solve," Maaoui said, "But the absence of rental housing is a problem with an obvious solution." Responding to such concerns, Austin City Council, in its May session, moved to radically reduce the minimum lot size for home construction from 5,750 square feet to just 1,800 square feet. This policy change, alongside others that now permit multiple homes on a single piece of land, aims to directly address the root barriers highlighted by the Harvard study in creating a broader availability of rental properties.
These new measures are significant steps, as expressed by Awais Azhar, HousingWorks Austin's deputy director, who told the Austin Monitor, "If you’ve worked on zoning and if you’ve worked on things like land use, you look at (this study) and it makes a lot of sense." He added, "These are the patterns we would expect." It appears that the direction Austin is taking may pave the way for a more integrated cityscape, at least in terms of renter and homeowner demographics.
