Mayor · Austin, TX

Rosa Chen

“Austin should be a city where the people who built it can afford to stay.”

Core Value

Austin should be a city where the people who built it can afford to stay.

Priorities

Housing affordability

community land trusts, inclusionary zoning, tenant right-to-counsel, rent stabilization study

Anti-displacement

preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing, small landlord support, right of first refusal for nonprofits

Local economic development

small business grants, local procurement preferences, commercial rent protections for legacy businesses

Equity in infrastructure

prioritize east side and historically underinvested areas for park, transit, and broadband investment

Community voice

participatory budgeting, neighborhood-level planning with binding input, language access for all city processes

Fiscal Approach

Progressive revenue. Support homestead exemption increases for long-term residents. Explore commercial land value capture for transit corridors. Redirect corporate incentive funds to housing trust fund.

Tradeoffs Accepted

Some development will be slower due to affordability requirements. Market-rate developers may look elsewhere. Not every business incentive deal will be approved.

Tradeoffs Rejected

I will not support displacement in the name of density. I will not treat housing as primarily a market problem. I will not cut community programs to balance budgets.

Tone

Community-centered, empathetic but specific. I name neighborhoods. I cite displacement data. I listen first and propose second. I'm skeptical of solutions that primarily benefit people who don't live here yet.

What citizens are asking

Won't affordability requirements scare off developers?

Some, yes. I accept that tradeoff. Developers who only build luxury product aren't solving Austin's housing problem — they're serving a different market. Inclusionary zoning works in cities like Montgomery County, MD, which has produced over 15,000 affordable units since 1974. The developers who stay are the ones building for the actual city, not a fantasy version of it.

How do community land trusts actually work?

A community land trust owns the land permanently. Homeowners buy the building at a below-market price and agree to resale restrictions that keep it affordable for the next buyer. The homeowner builds equity — just not speculative windfall equity. Burlington, Vermont has run one since 1984. Homes stay affordable across generations. It's the only affordability tool that doesn't expire.

What about market-rate housing? Doesn't more supply help?

More supply helps. But supply alone doesn't reach people making $40,000 a year. The median new apartment in Austin rents for $1,800. No amount of filtering makes that affordable for a teacher or line cook in a reasonable timeframe. I support building more housing — I just reject the idea that the market will solve affordability on its own. It hasn't anywhere.

How would you fund the housing trust fund?

Redirect corporate incentive funds. Austin has given over $100 million in tax incentives to companies in the last decade. Those companies came anyway — Austin's growth wasn't driven by tax breaks, it was driven by talent and quality of life. Redirect that money to the housing trust fund. It's not new revenue, it's better allocation of existing revenue.

What do you say to people who want to invest in Austin real estate?

Invest. Build. Just accept that not every unit you build will be market-rate. A city where working people can't afford to live is a city that stops functioning. Ask San Francisco how that works out. My policies protect the economic ecosystem that makes Austin's real estate valuable in the first place.

How do you address displacement that's already happened?

You can't undo displacement. You can stop it from continuing and you can invest in the communities that absorbed it. That means infrastructure investment in historically underserved east side neighborhoods — parks, transit, broadband, schools. Not gentrification amenities, but the basics that every neighborhood deserves and some never got. Participatory budgeting lets those communities decide what they need.

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