AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin is teaming up with Housing Connector, a nonprofit that matches residents facing housing instability with vacant units in the community.
The goal is to provide long-term housing solutions, while at the same time helping property owners fill vacant housing.
“We believe that no units should be sitting vacant when there’s someone in need of a home,” said Shayna Dunitz, the Managing Director of Housing Connector in Austin.
Dunitz told KVUE that their nonprofit works in collaboration with Zillow to connect property owners with local nonprofit service providers, like Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, to increase housing access for individuals, who may otherwise struggle to secure housing.
“We have a lot of folks facing housing instability here in Austin that either can’t afford the housing that we have available in the areas where they need to be for work, or for other services they have, or that can afford housing but are just not able to get in due to other barriers from their past,” Dunitz said.
Landlords participating in the program receive financial protections to encourage their involvement. Dunitz said they offer their tenants up to three months of emergency rental assistance throughout their 24 month lease, $5,000 in damage mitigation for those properties if anything gets damaged and coverage of one month vacancy loss, if the lease needs to be broken.
In exchange, landlords agree to modify their tenant screening criteria, including adjustments to credit scores, income-to-rent ratios and rental history requirements – providing more individuals access to housing opportunities.
Currently, Housing Connector has 2,300 units available on its Zillow-powered marketplace with reduced screening criteria. Dunitz said they anticipate being able to offer upwards of 20,000 units by the end of their first year.
City officials are hopeful that this initiative will strengthen relationships in the community, while addressing housing challenges.
“We’re really excited about the level of access this provides to folks in our community who have fallen on hard times,” Gary Pollack from Austin’s Homeless Strategy Office said. “Ensuring that they have choice in where they can live is really important for everybody.”
For more information, or to get involved, you can visit their website here.