AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin researchers tasked with tackling gentrification are set to present their findings to the Austin City Council later this month. A year ago, council members directed the group to map areas most at risk. 

Researchers are hoping their work provides a framework for our elected leaders to decide which strategies match the needs of the neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to displacement, as the cost of housing rises and the influx of more affluent residents continues. 

UT professors Elizabeth Mueller, Heather Way and Jake Wegmann presented highlights of the report at an Anti-Displacement Task Force meeting on Friday.

58-year-old Yvette Crawford-Lee is a member of the task force, who has experienced displacement personally.  She said she does not like going back to her old East Austin home.

“It hurts,” Crawford-Lee said. “I do have a lot of memories that will not be erased, I just wish I was still in the home I grew up in.”

She has fond memories of going to school on Chicon Street, eating at restaurants long gone on East 6th, and walking with her grandma to the groceries next to Hoover’s Cooking on Manor Road. Crawford-Lee lived in that home for 50 years, and it is also where she raised her kids. She sold the home in 2012, because of rising property taxes. 

“I gave up a lot, to move then, having to make that hard decision,” Crawford-Lee said. “I just couldn’t afford to live here, live in my house anymore.” 

The researchers looked at a number of factors like income, changes to demographics, median home values and the number or renters and homeowners. Mueller explained the vision statement, which is for low-income residents and people of color to stay and return to their neighborhoods, as well as to have opportunities for new low-income residents to move in. 

They identified a number of policies like purchasing land early on for affordable housing, establishing a below-market debt fund and creating a preservation center where employees can reach outdirectly to residents. 

“I dealt with this on my own,” Crawford-Lee said. “I wish that if, you know, there were agencies or organizations that were around, I wish that I had known that they had been to assist me, where I did not have to sell my home.”

Researchers emphasized the importance of having community-led solutions. 

“I’m hoping that there is a way that we can slow down the process, there are many families that are still here that are trying to hang on,” Crawford-Lee said.