В Галвестоне запускают программу строительства доступного жилья для работников среднего достатка

GALVESTON For Vision Galveston Executive Director Christine Bryant, the fact that nearly 70% of the island’s workforce — including teachers, law enforcement officers and nurses — must cross the causeway to get to work is a tragedy. That statistic reflects a shortage of affordable homes below $300,000, leaving many working families squeezed out of qualifying for public housing assistance while also being unable to afford market-rate housing on the island, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by Vision Galveston. “We call it the missing middle, that middle income that doesn’t have programs to help make housing more affordable,” Bryant said. MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION The city offers several programs to help low-income families afford housing, including the Public Housing Program, the Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as Section 8, and the Project-Based Voucher Program. Under these programs, residents typically pay 30% of their adjusted income toward rent, with the housing authority covering the remaining eligible costs. But those programs are limited to families whose incomes fall below certain federal limits. For a family of four on the island, that limit is $83,200, Galveston Housing Authority Executive Director Mona Purgason said. Bryant defines workforce housing as homes affordable to households earning 80% to 120% of the area median income. In Galveston, that means a four-person household earning between $83,200 and $124,000, based on an area median income of $104,000, according to federal statistics. Finding a way to bridge that gap, especially as inflation and rising living costs make housing less affordable, has become a challenge across the country, Purgason said. “That’s the million-dollar question,” Purgason said. “Frankly, there is still a need even with the programs that we have. For those individuals that are in that gap, they’re in a really tough position.” Building homes priced around $300,000 can be difficult when construction costs exceed what many workers can afford to pay. Insurance costs are another major barrier to developing housing affordable to middle-income workers, City Manager Brian Maxwell said. A home that costs roughly $400,000 to build may need to sell for about $300,000 to remain affordable to a workforce household, leaving a gap that must be covered through grants, philanthropy and other funding, Bryant said. “You don’t make money building workforce housing,” she said. A FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE Land costs add another challenge. Build Galveston, Vision Galveston’s workforce housing initiative, made offers on properties across the island but struggled to gain site control because land prices were too high. The Sealy & Smith Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare on the island, also bid on Galveston ISD’s former Rosenberg Elementary with plans to develop workforce housing for University of Texas Medical Branch employees. The school district ultimately rejected the bid and sold the property to a local nonprofit, which plans to turn the site into a green space named after a lauded local physician. Build Galveston eventually purchased the former L.A. Morgan Elementary School for $2.8 million in September, giving it control of 4.5 acres where it plans to build at least 20 single-family homes. Each home is planned to have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The organization isn’t opposed to multifamily housing, Bryant said. Its focus on single-family homes came from residents’ requests for affordable homeownership options, even if the homes are smaller than average. A 2023 market study commissioned by Build Galveston found that residents were willing to accept smaller homes in exchange for the opportunity to live on the island, Bryant said. “Single family home ownership is truly the first step towards wealth generation for families,” Bryant said. “When you own your home and you can build equity in that home, even if it’s at a slower equity rate, it’s just that sense of permanence that you build.” Build Galveston has looked to other cities for ways to make the economics of workforce housing work. Its Galveston Essential Workforce Housing Fund was inspired in part by a learning trip to Cincinnati, where private-sector companies, including Procter & Gamble and Kroger, contribute to a fund used to support workforce housing, Bryant said. OVERCOMING DOUBT The organization also looked to Austin for ideas about bridging economic gaps in housing, Bryant said. Build Galveston is trying to fill a gap the private market can’t easily address while giving developers an opportunity to incorporate workforce housing into larger projects. One challenge has been overcoming misconceptions about workforce housing, Bryant said. She has spoken with residents who initially viewed the concept as synonymous with low-income or Section 8 housing. Bryant also has worked to ease concerns that new workforce housing could change the character of existing neighborhoods. “When I sat with a neighbor across the street, I said that the house we’re going to build on the other side of the road is going to look very much like her house,” Bryant said. “It’s not going to be raised on pillars and it’s not a multifamily. It’s going to match the aesthetic of the area around you so that you’ll have a neighborhood.” Progress on the L.A. Morgan project has also helped convince some skeptics the organization’s plans are achievable, Bryant said. “We’ve had to overcome a lot of doubt that we could even get this far,” Bryant said. “You’ll see what we’re building and hopefully it’ll be replicated throughout the island. That’s our goal.”