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BG Reads Weekend Edition
BG Reads Weekend Edition (9.23.2024)
BG Reads Week in Review
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Top Clicks for the Week of September 16th, 2024:
WEEKEND NEWS
Austin area sees 'dramatic' rise in first-time homeless service clients; unhoused population grows (Community Impact)
More than 24,300 people in Austin and Travis County received services in 2023, according to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO—the organization overseeing the local Homelessness Response System. Services range from assistance with housing to overnight shelter stays and or longer-term supportive housing… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
‘Plan to plan to plan’: Austin could spend millions on ‘Imagine Austin’ revamp (KXAN)
The city of Austin could spend millions of dollars editing a comprehensive vision plan that some think has so far failed to produce results.
The Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted by Austin City Council in 2012, was intended to serve as the city’s guiding document, or blueprint, over a 30-year period. A little more than a decade into that 30-year plan, the city’s planning department is trying to edit it.
The city set aside $3 million in previous budget processes to make those adjustments, but when KXAN asked exactly how much a amendments could cost, the city did not answer directly… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County postpones Central Health budget vote amid scrutiny over audit, leadership conflict (KUT)
Travis County commissioners held off on giving final approval to the local hospital district's budget Tuesday in echoes of last year's drawn-out budget process.
Commissioners said they needed another week to parse out concerns about Central Health’s payments to UT's Dell Medical School, as well as an ongoing conflict between Central Health and its partner clinic, CommUnityCare.
There is a ticking clock on Travis County’s decision as Central Health’s new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Central Health’s proposed nearly $889 million budget would be primarily funded by taxpayers, who pay for the hospital district to provide health care to Travis County’s poor and indigent residents. Central Health is also asking the county to green light a tax rate of 10.8 cents per $100 of a home's value, which translates into a $66 increase to the average taxpayer’s annual bill... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
UT police chief resigns; assistant chief to take top cop post (Austin American-Statesman)
University of Texas Police Chief Eve Stephens, who stepped into the position in July 2023, resigned Friday, the university announced in a news release. She will be replaced by Assistant Chief Shane Streepy.
It was not immediately clear why Stephens resigned, and UT spokesperson Mike Rosen would not elaborate on the departure. A to Z sports, a sports media oulet, citing two sources reported Friday that Stephens was "presured" to resign.
The resignation comes at a time when the university is undergoing multiple leadership changes. Last month, UT's provost and vice president for research leadership resigned effective August 2025; a new vice president for marketing and communications was announced after a department restructuring resulted in 20 people getting laid off; and Katie McGee became the dean of students after serving as interim… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New build-to-rent neighborhood aims to inject housing into fast-growing Leander (Austin Business Journal)
A new build-to-rent neighborhood is opening in one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Leander.
Tricon Residential Inc., part of Blackstone Real Estate’s portfolio, is opening Tricon Bryson — a build-to-rent neighborhood consisting of 155 single-family homes — within Leander's wider Bryson development, according to an announcement. The new neighborhood will add to the region’s rental housing supply in Leander, where the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population has more than tripled since 2010.
“There’s a tremendous need for more housing overall, and every day it’s harder and harder to get a new neighborhood approved and permitted and ready to go, whether for rent or for sale,” said Andy Carmody, senior managing director and chief sustainability officer at Tricon Residential.
“We very strongly believe that it’s a math problem, a shortage of available homes for rent or for sale. That is the biggest problem we face in housing now, and we’re a huge advocate for more home building and home development.”
Homes in Bryson come in six floor plans with three- and four-bedroom options. Monthly rental rates range from $2,169 to $2,509, according to information on the neighborhood's website as of Sept. 20.
“The price of homes has gone up so much, it’s almost dumbfounding how expensive homes are to buy and own,” Carmody said. “We found a lot of success in having some of our homes available to rent, because they’re considerably cheaper today than ownership … the rental rates are 30% to 50% lower than the cost to own the same home in the Bryson neighborhood.”
The median sales price of a home in the metro in August was $439,990, according to the Austin Board of Realtors… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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