Affordable Housing Reaches Crisis Levels in Austin

Janisse says Austin is one of the fastest-growing US cities and suffers from the third worst traffic congestion.

AUSTIN, TX—The metro will need 135,000 units consisting of a mix of low income and market rate properties in the next decade in order to meet the affordable housing shortage that is reaching crisis levels here and in most other major cities around the country. One company is focused on making a difference in this crisis. Rainbow Housing Assistance Corporation provides resident service programs for residents of low-income housing communities across the nation, with a large presence in Texas.

Flynann Janisse, executive director of Rainbow Housing Assistance Corporation, recently attended the Texas Affiliated Affordable Housing Providers 2018 conference here, where she spoke on a panel titled “Resident Empowerment through Innovative Wrap-Around Services.” In this exclusive, Janisse discussed the state of the affordable housing market in Austin, identifying the low-income housing needs of residents and some of the key elements to designing low-income housing programs.