With over 570 homes under its belt, Austin Habitat for Humanity is focused on building 500 more
Austin Habitat’s efforts are being recognized with this year’s Austin Business Journal affordability award. It comes as the group marks over 40 years of work and over 570 affordable homes constructed in the Austin metro.
“I tell my construction team often … we have promises to keep for our homeowners,” Austin Habitat Chief Impact Officer Billy Whipple said. “Buying a house isn’t a simple journey, and you get told no along the way … I just want to make sure we’re not one of those.”
The team’s homebuilding started in 1987 with the first Austin Habitat home delivery. Whipple wasn’t there to see that first home get built, but he said the homebuilding process has changed significantly since then.
“They would fundraise for years and build a house, sell the house, use the proceeds from the mortgage and more fundraising to build another house,” Whipple said. “Just a very bootstrapped nonprofit.”
Since then, Austin Habitat has added a number of subdivisions and multifamily projects to its portfolio, including the 48-home Whisper Valley buildout and the construction of 11 row homes in the Mueller neighborhood.
On top of homebuilding, Austin Habitat has worked to tackle affordability with a home repair program, financing assistance and home purchase counseling.
Home repairs became part of Austin Habitat’s purview in the early 2000s. The team has helped plenty of families move into new homes, but Austin Habitat Chief Operating Officer Wayne Gerami said the repair program has helped countless families hold on to their homes.
“A lot of these folks are generational ownership … or people that moved into a house and it’s all they could afford,” Whipple said, pointing to roof repairs or accessibility modifications as some of the most common requests. “That’s what I love about (the program). It allows people to stay.”
Homebuilding remains a big priority, and as the affordability crisis has worsened, Whipple said the nonprofit has decided to meet the moment.
It added 91 homes to the metro last year and plans on sustaining an annual stream of at least 75 new homes a year. Austin Habitat seems poised to surpass that goal in 2026 with more than 80 homes expected this year.
HomeBase, the organization’s affordable housing consulting firm and real estate brokerage, is working with True North Homes to deliver 47 homes in South Austin’s Goodnight Ranch community, which should start construction any day now. Persimmon Point, which will make up 126 multifamily units upon completion, should wrap up later this year.
Beyond Travis County, Austin Habitat is putting up four homes in Lockhart and site development on an 11-home San Marcos community should start in the coming months.
“We set a seven-year goal to put 500 homes in the market, and then that wasn’t enough, so this year we decided to ramp up home repair,” Gerami said, with the program expanding to service 60 repairs a year. He added that “literally thousands of people will be benefiting from this expansion.”
Care for homeowners is at the center of the mission, but delivering homes at starter pricing, scaling up operations and wearing so many different hats has required a strong business model to scale, Austin Habitat CEO Michele Anderson said.
“People think of the heart aspect, not the finance aspect (of a nonprofit),” said Austin Habitat CEO Michele Anderson. “You have to have a team that’s very business focused.”
Like any other segment of the homebuilding market, Whipple said construction industry volatility and rising contract costs are imminent points of concern.
“We’re not magicians,” when it comes to keeping construction costs down, Whipple said, and the balancing act between a hard price cap for affordable home purchases and the collective costs of home delivery may be a challenge in the future.
“We’re entering in with kind of a new set of parameters that we have to figure out, and always just trying to keep our finger on the pulse,” he said.
A lot has changed in and around Austin Habitat in the past few decades, but Gerami said volunteers remain a vital piece of the organization’s efforts, especially as the team tries to serve more people than ever.
“The more you scale, the more you need the community to support you, and the community has stepped up in a big way and said we believe and the American dream,” Anderson said. “We believe Austin Habitat is positioned to be able to build a beautiful, quality home for people that want to stay in Austin and not need to move because they can never realize that dream.”
