The Texas state capital’s “right to return” law was delayed by the pandemic, but Austin is now taking applications for longtime low-income residents to find housing in gentrifying neighborhoods.

“The City of Austin says it will give people from gentrifying neighborhoods priority in the application process for more than two dozen homes it's selling to low-income families,” reports Audrey McGlinchy for KUT.
“This is the first time the city plans to use what it calls a ‘preference policy,’ which was approved by council members in 2018,” according to McGlincy. Planetizen shared news of the new policy in September 2021, when the city identified a development site for the program. The deployment of the law, originally intended for late 2019, was delayed by the pandemic.
“To benefit from the program, people first need to be making less than Austin's family median income; for a single-person household that amounts to $69,250 a year,” according to McGlinchy. “Additionally, people need to prove they've been affected by gentrification or that they have generational ties to the city. That can mean they live or have lived — as far back as 2000 — in a neighborhood in the process of gentrifying; that's the process in which wealthy people move to a historically middle- or low-income neighborhood and housing costs rise.”
A study published in 2018 by researchers from the University of Texas is informing the city’s assessment of gentrification around the city.
More details on the new right to return law and the properties available in this first wave of applications can be found in the source article below.
FULL STORY: Austin says it will sell city-owned property to families affected by gentrification

Red Cities, Blue Cities, and Crime
Homicides rose across the nation in 2020 and 2021. But did they rise equally in all cities, or was the situation worse in some than in others?

The Shifting Boomer Bulge: More Bad News for America’s Housing Crisis?
In the first of a two-part series, PlaceMakers’ Ben Brown interviews housing guru Arthur C. Nelson on the sweeping demographic changes complicating the housing market.

A Serious Critique of Congestion Costs and Induced Vehicle Travel Impacts
Some highway advocates continue to claim that roadway expansions are justified to reduce traffic congestion. That's not what the research shows. It's time to stop obsessing over congestion and instead strive for efficient accessibility.

Tolling All Lanes
Bay Area transportation planners are studying a radical idea to reduce traffic congestion and fund driving alternatives: tolling all lanes on a freeway. Even more radical, the plan considers tolling parallel roads.

Federal SMART Grants Awarded for Transportation Safety, Equity Projects
The grant program focuses on the use of technology to improve safety, accessibility, and efficiency in transportation.

Fare Enforcement Upheld by Washington Supreme Court
But using armed police to enforce fare payment is less than ideal in the eyes of the top court in the state of Washington.
City of Greenville
City of Greenville
Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps Program
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact: Mobility, Community, Possibility
City of Spearfish
City of Lomita
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.