Resources

Glossary

• What is Gentrification? Gentrification is a profit-driven racial and class reconfiguration of urban, working-class and communities of color that have suffered from a history of disinvestment and abandonment. The process is characterized by declines in the number of low-income, people of color in neighborhoods that begin to cater to higher-income workers willing to pay higher rents. Gentrification is driven by private developers, landlords, businesses, and corporations, and supported by the government through policies that facilitate the process of displacement, often in the form of public subsidies. Gentrification happens in areas where commercial and residential land is cheap, relative to other areas in the city and region, and where the potential to turn a profit either through repurposing existing structures or building new ones is great. (Credit: Causa Justa)

  • Some Key elements of gentrification include:

    • A history of disinvestment of money, jobs, and other resources from the neighborhoods and the city 

    • Speculators or developers buying property inexpensively and “flipping”1 it to make huge profits

    • Rezoning, subsidies, and other policies to make development of expensive housing easier and to court new, wealthier — and often — White people moving into the neighborhoods

    • Increasing housing costs that price out poor and working-class people and people of color to make way for wealthier residents

• What is Deregulation? Deregulation, in short, is loosening the rules and regulations in the Land Development Code or LDC. “The Land Development Code determines how land can be used throughout the city, including what can be built, where it can be built, and how much can (or cannot) be built.” 

• What is Upzoning? Upzoning is when zoning code changes are made that increase the amount of development that is allowed. Now, this is not inherently bad, however, housing advocates have long fought against blanket upzoning because it has been shown that it causes speculation and gentrification. The recent HOME policies are examples of upzoning. 

• What is “HOME”? “HOME" changes the land development code (which limits how much and what can be built on a property) to allow more units to be built on any parcel of land currently zoned for a single-family home (aka upzoning). Phase 1 of HOME allows three units per lot. Phase 2 would allow for even more units by allowing each existing lot to be broken up into smaller lots (or subdivided). While some falsely argue that this will lead to more affordable housing, without any affordability requirements, developers will continue to build and sell at market prices. 

  • Debunking HOME One-Pager

• What are entitlements? Generally speaking, entitlements for developers are rights, privileges, and permissions granted to developers by the city. These entitlements are often negotiated and regulated by the city. So when you hear that policies like HOME are giving developers more entitlements, it usually means that they are given more permissions such as an increased height at which they can build or increasing how much they can build. Again, not inherently bad, however when they are given entitlements without any community protections put in place, these entitlements pave the way for developers to continue to do more harm.

• So…is density bad? No. Density in housing terms generally means building more dense and not as spaced out. As our population grows and we need more housing, density in urban areas is inevitable. Density is not bad, its neutral. But again, density needs to be implemented WITH affordability. When no protections or rules are put in place that require developers to have affordable units in their new properties, there won’t be any affordable units built. Assuming that density will eventually lead to affordable housing is naive and based on false trickle-down housing economic theories.

• What is MFI? MFI stands for medium family income and is an indicator used to determine affordability levels for housing. Austin median family income for a 4-person household was $122,000 in 2023, incredibly high and higher than the national average which hovers around $75,000. Different communities in Austin also don’t make the same amount, on the east side families are making closer to $50,000 or under. Austin needs deeply affordable housing at 50% and 30% MFI. Here is the MFI chart for Austin.