PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Although different organizations assess housing conditions on a regular basis, currently, no coordinated system for measuring housing conditions exists in Travis County. The Community Action Network (CAN) is dedicated to developing housing performance measures that will enable the community to track its progress in achieving the goals identified in the Community Assessment vision statement:
Austin/Travis County will be a community where all persons will have the opportunity to live in safe, decent, and affordable housing.
One way to capture changes in the housing system over time is to utilize regularly published federal, state, and local data as outcome indicators. For example, in the current assessment, the percentage of Austin/Travis County residents who pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and the number of eligible residents who are on a waiting list for publicly-subsidized housing have all been examined. These indicators can serve as a baseline measurement for future assessments.
When the next assessment on housing is conducted, the same statistics can be reviewed to determine what changes have occurred since the last assessment. Listed below are some suggested housing indicators.
Table 7.
Suggested 1999 Community Indicators for Housing
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TYPE OF INDICATOR
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DESCRIPTION
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Quantitative
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- The percentage of Austin/Travis County residents who pay more than 30% of their income on housing.
- Proportion of eligible residents who apply for publicly-subsidized housing compared to the number of publicly-subsidized units available.
- Length of waiting lists for public housing assistance.
- The percentage of families that can afford the median priced home in Austin/Travis County compared to other cities in Texas.
- The percentage of reasonably priced homes (less than $85,000) and median price of two-bedroom apartment.
- The amount and use of funding for Housing in the community.
- The percentage of minorities who receive home loans compared to Whites.
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- Current housing conditions as reported by the Community Action Network's Working Group on Affordable Housing - Present results from previous year's report to get feedback on how conditions have changed and/or improved.
- Implementation of a Housing Trust Fund and accomplishments.
- Initiation or development of mixed-income neighborhoods.
- Indication or passage of legislation to change the Fair Housing Act to prevent discrimination of potential tenants based on their source of funding.
- Passage of legislation to prohibit and/or improve substandard developments in rural areas of Texas.
- Adoption of a joint affordable housing policy that includes a comprehensive list of neighborhood impacts that all housing developments must address (i.e.: traffic, safety, schools, etc.).
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