Austin, Texas

Austin, TX

Updated December 2015

Known as “The Live Music Capital of the World,” Austin is reported to have more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. Besides being a cultural center, it’s also the state capital, a center for education, and the economic hub for a metropolitan area of over 1.7 million people. With a population of nearly 912,800 according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 estimates, Austin is the fourth largest city in Texas. It has experienced a population boom over the past several years—with a growth rate of nearly 16 percent between 2010 and 2014—and was ranked by Forbes as the second fastest growing city in 2015. The city’s racial composition is roughly 49 percent white, 35 percent Hispanic or Latino, 8 percent African-American, 6 percent Asian, and 3 percent of two or more races.

In 1928, the City Planning Commission’s “A City Plan for Austin, Texas” institutionalized racial segregation by explicitly recommending moving “the negro population” to East Austin, and, despite hotly contested gentrification struggles, the trend of residential segregation is still visible on the East side. During the “dot.com” boom of the 1990’s, East Austin’s proximity to downtown, low-cost real estate, and retreating social stigma attracted an affluent majority, which forced many of the poor minority households to leave. The decline of affordable housing in East Austin and other segments of the city prompted the formation of CDCs and, in 2007, the Homestead Preservation District was established to create a reinvestment zone, a community land trust, and land bank in East Austin.

Today, some of the city’s CDCs strive to incorporate environmental justice principles. One example is the Saldana Subdivision, an infill project of four tracts on 7.2 acres by Guadalupe CDC. Built with the goal of achieving net-zero energy for all units, the development will be affordable to moderate- and low-income homeowners and renters, with a large portion affordable for extremely low-income households. Austin has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for its work in green development and due to an active green movement, stringent new energy efficiency codes have become standard practice for all new construction in the city.

Austin’s size and the dynamic role of community groups and approaches have catalyzed community wealth building efforts in recent decades. Groups such as the Independent Business Alliance Austin and BigAustin help encourage a strong network of independent, locally owned firms. In the two decades since its inception, PeopleFund, a local community development financial institution, has grown from the idea of one graduate student to possibly the most influential voice for community development in Central Texas with over $15 million in assets and many more millions in loans. Cooperation Texas, the only worker cooperative development center in the state, is also playing a critical role in catalyzing and supporting sustainable jobs by providing education, training, and technical assistance to people seeking to start or strengthen worker-owned cooperatives, and business owners interested in selling their enterprise to their workers.

An overview of community wealth building efforts follows:

Anchor Institutions

Austin Community Foundation

http://www.austincommunityfoundation.org

The Austin Community Foundation has $160 million dollars in assets and has made $267 million in grants since its establishment in 1977. In 2006, it took over the ownership and management of Bright Leaf Preserve, a 216-acre nature preserve in west Austin, thus ensuring the asset could benefit the community into perpetuity. To augment its grantmaking, in October 2015 the Austin Community Foundation launched a new $1.5 million Impact Investment Fund that will make 3-5 year investments of up to $250,000 in nonprofits and social enterprises located in Central Texas.

Impact Austin

http://www.impact-austin.org

Formed in 2003, Impact Austin is a women’s collective giving organization made up of women who donate at least $1,250 each year. In 2015, the group issued four $80,000 grants to groups in its focus areas (Culture, Education, Environment, and Family) and piloted a $50,000 “catalyst grant,” which provides funds to improve a nonprofit’s future performance, impact and sustainability.

Innovation, Creativity & Capital (IC2) Institute, University of Texas

http://www.ic2.utexas.edu

Established in 1977, the IC2 Institute is a research unit at the University of Texas that brings together the business world, academia, and government to advance the theory and practice of wealth creation. Its key programs include the Austin Technology Incubator, the Bureau of Business Research, and the Global Commercialization Group. Its Technology Incubator has helped over 250 companies collectively raise $1 billion of investment.

Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

Austin Community Design and Development Center

http://www.acddc.org

Founded in 2006, the Austin Community Design and Development Center (ACDDC) aims to improve the quality of life of low- and moderate-income people by identifying and solving social, economic, and environmental problems as they relate to housing. ACDDC’s staff is LEED accredited and integrates green design principles into site feasibility, construction project management, and policy work. ACDDC was a key partner in the Alley Flat Initiative, which develops small, detached residential units in underused alleys to illustrate how sustainable housing can be affordable and adaptable.

Blackland Community Development Corporation

http://www.blacklandcdc.org

Founded in 1983, Blackland CDC owns about half of the single-family homes and duplexes in the Blackland neighborhood and hosts the only neighborhood-created program for homeless families in Texas. Focusing on rehabilitating older houses with energy-saving methods, the group has recycled approximately 310,000 pounds of building material. The Blackland neighborhood, a historically African-American community, was the site of one of the first big gentrification fights in East Austin. Blackland CDC’s board is composed of people who live in the neighborhood and it has successfully fought off the University of Texas’ attempt to expand its campus into the neighborhood. In 2014, the CDC converted a historic bungalow into a community “conservatory,” which provides community space for meetings and arts and recreational classes and activities.

Foundation Communities

http://www.foundcom.org

Foundation Communities was created in 1990 with a focus on empowering low-income families and individuals and has become a national leader in the asset-building movement. The nonprofit owns 18 affordable housing communities that provide apartments and duplexes to over 2,800 low-income families. It employs a "service-enriched" housing model that focuses on ending the cycle of poverty through housing and on-site service centers, providing programs such as financial literacy and education. It also has a matched savings program, which provides a $2 match for every $1 saved for the purpose of purchasing a home, college tuition, or small business expansion.

Frameworks CDC

http://www.frameworkscdc.org

Formed in 2004, Frameworks provides homeownership education to families looking for affordable housing as well as foreclosure prevention counseling. Working closely with at-risk families, they intervene with banks to help families avoid foreclosure. Since 2005, Frameworks CDC has counseled 1,590 people, which resulted in 1,113 maintaining their status as homeowners (1,058 of whom were first-time homeowners). Their efforts generated over $3.3 million in local tax revenue as a result of these homeowners retaining their property.

Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation (GNDC)

http://www.guadalupendc.org

Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation was created in 1981. Since its inception, it has rehabilitated over 50 homes, enabled over 40 families to purchase homes, and developed over 50 single-family rental units. In 2012, GNDC expanded its programs to include a land trust, the first in the state. Its long-term vision is to transform an existing brownfield into 110 units of land trust housing for low to moderate income individuals—with 60 of the units producing as much energy as they consume, generating a “net-zero” energy bill.

Harlingen CDC

http://www.harlingencdc.org

Established in 1991, Harlingen CDC (HCDC) has constructed 136 homes for low-income families, created 15 units of rental housing, assisted 500 low-income families with energy conservation measures, and generated over $10 million in total private investment. The CDC also has a Homebuyer Assistance Program, which provides up to $10,000 to help first-time homebuyers and veterans with down payments, gap financing, and closing cost assistance.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)

PeopleFund

http://www.peoplefund.org

Founded in 1994, PeopleFund provides loans to small businesses and nonprofits, and a range of business assistance services including one-to-one mentorship and educational workshops. As of 2013, it had lent over $37 million to more than 445 small business owners and nonprofits, creating over 3,000 new jobs. Nearly two-thirds of the businesses it supports are minority owned.

Cooperatives (Co-ops)

Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery

http://www.blackstar.coop

The Black Star Co-op Pub and Brewery is the first co-operatively owned and self-managed brewpub in the United States. With its first general membership meeting in 2006 and official opening in 2010, the consumer cooperative now has nearly 3,200 member-owners and 27 workers, who receive a living wage and benefits. Beers are crafted based on member feedback through tasting panels and member-owner beer-design meetings, and its menu focuses on locally-sourced and sustainably-produced food.

College Houses Cooperatives

http://www.collegehouses.org

Originally formed in 1964 as a residential college program, College Houses Co-op now provides affordable, dormitory-style housing and meals to over 400 students at seven different co-ops near the University of Texas and Austin Community College. In 2008, three of the co-ops, comprising about 170 students, moved into a single newly constructed high-rise building known by members as "The Super Co-op."

Inter-Cooperative Council Austin (ICC Austin)

http://www.iccaustin.coop

Formed as a student organization at the University of Texas in the 1930s and incorporated in 1970, ICC Austin provides affordable housing to students at the University of Texas, Austin Community College, and St. Edward’s University. It currently has 188 members living in nine houses.

KOOP

http://www.koop.org

KOOP is a member owned and operated community radio station that strives to feature programs that focus on local issues or meet the needs of communities underserved by mainstream media. All members can apply to produce a radio program and KOOP provides the training and facilities needed to help members interested in doing so. KOOP currently has more than 60 unique, locally-produced programs that air each week.

Wheatsville Food Co-op

http://www.wheatsville.coop

Opened in 1976, Wheatsville Food Co-op is one of just a few member-owned grocery stores in Texas. It currently has over 17,000 members, and in 2013 opened a second location in South Austin. Wheatsville sells a full line of groceries, including organic produce and a large selection of locally produced food products.

Whitehall Cooperative

http://www.whitehallcoop.com

Located two blocks from the University of Texas, Whitehall Co-op was established in 1971 and houses 14 members. The oldest housing co-op in Austin, they are a vegetarian, consensus-run, and multi-generational.

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

Zephyr Environmental Corporation

http://www.zephyrenv.com

Based in Austin, Zephyr Environmental Corporation is a full-service environmental, health and safety firm offering consulting, training, and data systems services. In 2010, Zephyr became an ESOP company. With 5 employees when the company started in 1994, it now has 80 employee owners in four cities and is credited with performing over 5,100 projects for hundred of clients.

Green Economy

Compost Pedallers

https://compostpedallers.com

Compost Pedallers is a for-profit enterprise that relies on 100 percent bike-power to collect compostables from Austin-based homes and businesses and transport them to nearby urban farms and community gardens to support the growth of local food. Through this work, the business aims to build a more vibrant community by reducing waste, strengthening the local food system, and re-connecting neighbors to each other and the places in which they live. To encourage composting, participants are awarded points for each pound of scraps collected, which can then be redeemed for local goods and services at over a dozen local businesses.

Ecology Action

http://www.ecology-action.org

Ecology Action is a nonprofit organization committed to educating and empowering people to create a healthier environment through recycling and environmental education. The nonprofit created Austin’s first recycling program over 40 years ago, which now has expanded to provide comprehensive industrial and commercial recycling solutions for businesses in the Austin and Central Texas region. In collaboration with the City of Austin and the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD), its latest program, Austin Marketplace, brings together entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes to create closed-loop systems in which one company’s waste is another company’s raw material. At the time of writing, over 80 businesses are participating in the initiative.

Individual Wealth Building

BigAustin

http://www.bigaustin.org

Founded in 1992, BigAustin provides entrepreneurial education, business counseling, and loans to small businesses and micro-enterprises with a focus on economically disadvantaged communities. The nonprofit serves about 1,300 small business entrepreneurs a year and has disbursed over $6.5 million in loans to thousands of individuals since its establishment.

Capital Area Housing Finance Corporation

http://cahfc.org

Established in 1981 to help provide affordable homes to workers in Central Texas, Capital Area Housing Finance Corporation now serves families across nine Central Texas counties. The Austin-based nonprofit’s Single Family Housing program, which provides first-time homebuyers with down payment assistance, is credited with helping 3,500 people purchase homes. Its Multi-Family Housing program finances the construction or acquisition of below-market rate rental properties and is credited with financing 3,500 units.

English At Work

http://www.englishatwork.org

A program of the Literary Coalition of Central Texas, ENGLISH @ WORK provides customized language instruction at businesses, eliminating many of the challenges that limit student retention at traditional language providers. Since its inception in 2005, the program has served over 800 Central Texan immigrant workers at 30 businesses in the grocery, healthcare, and hospitality industries. Program graduates increase their earnings by an average of 150 percent.

Individual Wealth Preservation

Capital IDEA

http://www.capitalidea.org

Capital IDEA is committed to lifting adults out of poverty and into living wage careers. To do so, it provides the financial and emotional support that non-traditional adult students need to succeed in college and ultimately reach self-sufficiency. Since its establishment in 1998, Capital IDEA has helped over 1,000 low-income adults in Central Texas. In 2014 alone, the nonprofit served 825 low-income adults by fully funding tuition, fees, and textbooks, assisting with childcare and transportation expenses, and providing intensive career counseling and case management services.

Local Food Systems

Sustainable Food Center

http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org

Founded in 1993, with roots dating back to 1975 as Austin Community Gardens, Sustainable Food Center (SFC) works to cultivate a healthy community by strengthening the local food system and improving access to nutritious, affordable food. Through its Grow Local Program, SFC supports home, school, and community gardeners with classes, trainings, and resources and provides schools and low-income home gardeners with free gardening materials to reduce the financial barriers to gardening. Its Farm Direct Program promotes access to fresh, healthy food by connecting local farmers to schools, worksites, and food service operations and to Austin shoppers through four of the largest weekly farmers’ markets in Texas. It also runs The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre, which offers community cooking and nutrition education classes.

Urban Patchwork

http://www.urbanpatchwork.org

Urban Patchwork (UP) was Austin’s first nonprofit neighborhood farm network and Community Supported Agriculture. It helps neighbors turn unused yard space into farmland to produce vegetables, fruit, nuts, and eggs. In exchange for hosting farm plots, residents and businesses receive fresh vegetables. Founded in 2009, UP offers farm start-up programs, nutritional workshops for residents, home food production, canning, and fermentation courses, and job training and creation.

Urban Roots

http://www.urbanrootsatx.org

Established in 2007 as a program of YouthLaunch, Urban Roots became an independent nonprofit in 2011. Aiming to use food and farming to transform the lives of young people and inspire, engage, and nourish the community, Urban Roots’ operations center around its 3.5 acre urban, sustainable farm in East Austin, which aims to grow 25,000 pounds of produce on an annual basis. The nonprofit provides paid internships to Austin youth who work on the farm. Committed to local hunger relief, Urban Roots donates 40 percent of its harvest to area soup kitchens and food pantries, and sells the remaining portion through its CSA program and at local farmers’ markets.

Municipal Enterprise

Austin Energy

http://www.austinenergy.com

Austin Energy provides electricity to over 448,000 customers in the City of Austin, Travis County, and part of Williamson County. It is the country’s 8th largest publicly owned electric utility, which means it returns profits of roughly $105 million to the city’s general fund each year. Austin Energy owns the nation’s first and largest green building program and has one of the top performing renewable energy programs, with nearly 50 percent of its power generation being carbon-emission free.

New State & Local Policies

Austin Independent Business Alliance

http://www.ibuyaustin.com

Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA) works to promote locally-owned independent businesses through popular education, public relations campaigns, and local policies that meet the needs of its hundreds of member businesses. AIBA was founded in 2002 and has created eight IBIZ (Independent Business Investment Zone) Districts to help neighborhood business districts become destination locations. It also hosts a luncheon series for local business owners and publishes IndieAustin, a directory of AIBA members.

Livable Cities

http://www.liveablecity.org

Founded in 2002 by public policy experts and community activists, Livable Cities works to safeguard Austin’s long-term social, environmental and economic well-being by educating, informing and empowering Austin residents to improve Austin’s quality of life for all residents. Through public-policy research, public discourse and broad community collaboration, its successes include stronger public controls on big box retail development, reforms for corporate tax incentives and other public subsidies, the passage of $120 million in local affordable housing bonds, and the passage of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive plan, the City’s first comprehensive plan in over 30 years.

Social Enterprise

Southwest Key Programs Social Enterprise Complex

http://www.swkey.org/enterprise/complex.html

Based in Austin, Southwest Key Programs is a national nonprofit organization providing education, shelter, and alternatives to incarceration to over 200,000 youth and their families on an annual basis. To create jobs for its residents while generating revenues to support its programming, Southwest Key operates several small social enterprise businesses including Cafe del Sol (a Mexican café), The Blooming Florist, Southwest Key Green Energy & Construction, Southwest Key Maintenance, and Southwest Key Workforce Development. The enterprises are all co-located with the nonprofit’s other workforce development initiatives at Southwest Key’s Social Enterprise Complex, which supports around 100 jobs and was the first complex of its kind in the country when completed in 2011.

State & Local Investments

Austin’s Department of Neighborhood Housing and Community Development

http://austintexas.gov/department/housing

Austin's Department of Neighborhood Housing and Community Development provides housing, community development, and small business development services to City residents to increase opportunities for self-sufficiency. Its HousingSmarts initiative provides free homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention counseling. Program graduates are eligible for up to $40,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance, as well as the department’s Match Savings Account Program, where the city provides a $4 match for every $1 saved for the purpose of higher education, purchasing a home, or small business development/expansion.

Austin’s Recycling Economic Development Program

http://austintexas.gov/recyclingecodev

Launched in 2014, Austin’s Recycling Economic Development Program aims to attract, retain, and grow zero-waste Austin businesses and entrepreneurs in order to create local jobs and foster a resilient zero-waste ecosystem. The program includes one-on-one business assistance as well as free marketing on its LocallyAustin.org site to companies involved in recycling, repair, and/or reuse. To provide affordable space to such enterprises, the city is also redeveloping 100 acres adjacent to a closed landfill site into an eco-industrial park called the Austin [re]Manufacturing Hub.

Transit-Oriented Development

Capital MetroRail Red Line

http://www.capmetro.org/MetroRail

Capital MetroRail opened a new passenger rail system between the Convention Center in downtown Austin and the City of Leander in 2010. The Red Line is 32 miles long and provides services during peak morning and afternoon commuter hours. Each of the nine stations on the Red line integrates compact, walkable communities with a mix of residences, retailers and offices centered around transit. The system cost $105 million to construct and has averaged 1,600 riders per weekday. Read more about Capital MetroRail Red Line...

University & Community Partnerships

Alley Flat Initiative

http://www.thealleyflatinitiative.org

A collaboration of three groups — the Austin Community Design and Development Center (ACDDC), the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation, and the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development—the Alley Flat Initiative has designed and built 12 flats in the city. Accessed from Austin’s extensive network of underutilized alleys, "Alley Flats" are small, detached residential units that seek to create affordable housing through efficient designs, sustainable technologies and innovative home ownership financing. The Alley Flat Initiative won the Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Award for Redevelopment in both 2009 and 2011.

Center for Sustainable Development, University of Texas

http://soa.utexas.edu/csd/

The Center for Sustainable Development was started in 2001 to advance the University of Texas’ interest in promoting sustainable development and project based understanding of the connections between the environment, economic prosperity, and social justice. Through its public interest design courses, the Center seeks to address individual and community-scale issues such as the built environment’s effect on social and economic well-being. Promoting equity as a necessary component of sustainability, the program seeks to contribute to the larger national discussion about how public interest design might be interwoven into architecture curricula to impact positively larger social problems.

Institute for Community, University and School Partnerships (ICUSP)

https://www.facebook.com/icusp

The Institute for Community, University and School Partnerships (ICUSP) was established to promote academic achievement and child well-being in central Texas by bringing together resources from the local community, the University of Texas, and local schools. COBRA (Community of Brothers in Revolutionary Alliance) is a mentoring program for high school boys while VOICES (Verbally Outspoken Individuals Creating Empowered Sisters) is an academic leadership program for high school girls.

Worker Cooperatives

4th Tap Brewing Co-op

http://4thtap.coop

From its conception over a decade ago when its founders began home brewing beer on a stovetop, 4^th Tap Brewing Co-op celebrated its grand opening in November 2015. It is the first worker-owned brewery in Texas, and one of the first in the United States. Committed to brewing interesting beers, the worker-owners rely on many ingredients from Texas and serve beers directly from tanks in its taproom.

Cooperation Texas

http://cooperationtexas.coop/

Founded in 2009, Cooperation Texas’ mission is to create sustainable jobs through the development, support and promotion of worker-owned cooperatives. Cooperation Texas works with Texas workers seeking to start or strengthen worker-owned cooperatives and business owners seeking to sell their enterprise to their workers. Its achievements include the development of worker-owned cooperatives in a range of industries including residential cleaning, brewing, technology, natural building, and baking. Read more about Cooperation Texas...

Dahlia Green Cleaning Services

http://dahlia.coop

Founded in 2012 by four women motivated to create just and dignified jobs in the cleaning industry, Dahlia Green Cleaning Services is the first worker-owned cooperative in Austin that specializes in green cleaning. The business aims to create jobs with fair wages and equal opportunity, and relies on hand-made eco-friendly products to promote a healthy living environment for customers, members, and the planet.

Earthbound

http://earthboundbuilders.com

Established by three Austin builders frustrated with being hourly workers, and interested in sharing tools and administrative responsibilities, Earthbound is a worker cooperative focused on providing high quality, environmentally responsible construction services. The cooperative relies on natural building methods, local materials, and sustainable design principles to create spaces that are healthier to live in, more beautiful to look at, and better performing than conventional alternatives.

Polycot Associates

http://polycotassociates.com

Founded as Polycot Consulting in 2001, Polycot Associates converted to a worker-cooperative in early 2014 with a mission to improve the world through inspiring and useful web technology, a humane worker-owned business structure, and a collaborative, responsive, transparent process. With five current worker-owners, the cooperative specializes in leveraging open source tools to provide custom web development and design services.

Photos by Khowaga, Visualist Images

Austin, Texas

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