Affordable housing, or its scarcity, is the big challenge in Austin.

Each year, emerging rents and space costs make the city increasingly unaffordable for teachers, nurses, students, structural teams, musicians, and service workers. they can afford it.

Of those who remain in Austin, nearly a portion of renters are “burdened by costs,” meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their source of income on housing, restricting their ability to afford food, transportation and other necessities.

And HousingWorks Austin’s newest dashboard shows the city has created just 7,010 of the 135,000 housing sets it pledged to add through 2028.

Given the scale and urgency of the need, it is incredibly disappointing that the proposed redevelopment of the former American-Statesman site, a privileged downtown community, provides very few homes.

The plans submitted last month to the city’s planmaking commission’s convening for six resplendent towers on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, just east of South Congress Avenue. Nearly 1. 5 million square feet of work space and restaurants. Plus 1,378 residential units, a combination of condos and apartments, of which only 55 would be affordable for others earning less than 80% of the median household income.

It’s getting worse and worse. Of those 55 affordable sets, only 47 would be genuine apartments under development. For the other eight, the developer would pay a payment to the city’s affordable housing fund to offer those sets on site.

Pretty ridiculous.

Now he’s thinking, “This is America. An expander doesn’t have to build a series of affordable housing if it’s not necessary. “And he’s right, if they expand the site as the existing zoning allows.

But when a developer asks the city for permission to move far beyond that zoning, to build far more workplace and housing area than would otherwise be allowed, then yes, the city can ask for significant network benefits in return.

In those situations, for housing in this component of the city, city policy states that 20% of housing must be affordable.

The proposal on the former statesman spits out only 4%.

“That number wants to be significantly higher,” Kathie Tovo, a council member who represents the central city, told me last week.

How it is under debate.

Endeavour Real Estate Group is proposing a major progression on the nearly 19 acres owned by the Atlanta-based Cox family, the Statesman’s molding owners. But it’s important to note that the plan also provides significant network benefits in the form of parks and transportation facilities.

On the progression side: Endeavour grants approximately 3. 5 million square feet of structure area out of the 660,000 square feet recently allowed on this plot. square feet.

Endeavour also offers towers ranging in height from 215 to 525 feet. Lately it has a limit of 96 feet. The South Central Waterfront Plan advised a limit of 400 feet.

City leaders need the site to become a dynamic gateway to the city center. They are also aware that this is a unique opportunity to secure devices that will serve future generations.

On the benefits side of the network: Endeavour would set aside 6. 5 acres, one-third of the site, for parks, public protection for Lady Bird Lake and Austin’s prominent urban bat colony.

The developer would also give up nearly 2 acres for the Barton Springs Road extension and provide land for a long-term transit stop on the Blue Line.

The dropper for me: Endeavour will place 95% of the project’s underground parking lot in above-ground parking towers along the river.

“That’s a very big credit to us,” zoning chief Jerry Rusthoven told the Planning Commission last month.

Overall, Rusthoven said, the former Statesman site “is giving up a lot in terms of park and right-of-way, so the housing load on that plot has been eased to make up for those things. “

Municipal workers were willing to settle for only 4% of housing complexes as affordable.

But this figure pleases some members of the plan drawing commission and the city council, who will be the last to appeal to this project.

Planning Commissioner Joao Paulo Connolly brazenly expressed his fear about the option that the city “will end up with an insignificant number or no games on site for this development. “

Commissioner Solveij Rosa Praxis challenged Endeavour to dig deeper: “If big profits are expected, we must also see something big for the community.

Tovo told me that this deserves to come with more affordable housing, he still doesn’t have an express figure in his brain. He asked the staff for more data so that he could succeed in a moderate figure.

Above all, Tovo noted that the city’s requirement is not only about the number of affordable housing sets, but also about the type. The city wants to make sure some of those affordable sets have multiple rooms that can accommodate families, rather than just offering small studios.

“We want the coast to suit other types of families: families with children, other people who may only have one caregiver,” Tovo told me. “We want a varied mix of families. To do this, we want a varied combination of units Types and number of rooms.

Richard Suttle, the developers’ lawyer, told the Planning Commission that he was willing to review the proposal, but that in the end, the allocation will have to remain economically viable. “It’s like a Christmas tree,” he said last month, providing a fitting seasonal analogy. “You can’t rate it so much, and it starts to tip over. “

Come to think of it, the plan approval procedure is like a gift exchange between the city and the developer. They both give something and receive something in return. But it will have to be a fair deal.

So far, the deal includes very few suitable homes that Austin desperately wants. Given the beautiful profits this allocation is likely to generate, Endeavour may be more generous. The groups that will build this assignment, as well as the hotel and restaurant the painters who will one day paint on it, also want suitable housing.

Grumet is Metro’s columnist for the Statesman. Sa column, ATX in Context, contains his opinions. Share yours via email to bgrumet@statesman. com or Twitter to @bgrumet.