Hilario Ancira came to Austin when he was 5 years old. He and his father, uncles and grandfather arrived in a wagon pulled by a pair of mules in 1922, and they spent that first day in a stable at First Street and Congress Avenue. Now 88 years old, Ancira still calls East Austin his home, but because of the rising cost of living in the area, Ancira could find it difficult to remain there. The integrity of a neighborhood full of longtime residents such as Ancira is preserved more and more often with the help of nonprofit organizations such as the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation.
The Guadalupe Neighborhood
Development Corporation
The GNDC helps battle gentrification, the process by which lifelong residents, traditionally of low-income families, are forced out because they can no longer afford increased rent or the taxes on homes that rise in value because of increased development. The nonprofit organization purchases land and develops housing to sell or rent back to longtime residents of the community at affordable rates. Church leaders agree that gentrification has affected the neighborhood. They have seen changes in congregations both economically and ethnically.
Mark Rogers, project director for GNDC, has been with the organization since 1994. He said the organization was formed in 1981 by church members and residents in response to a wave of people moving out and increased criminal activity that threatened the existence of the residential neighborhood.
Now the opposite is the problem, Rogers said. Too many people and developers are coming into the area.
"We just got this flyer in the mail, to show as an example that things are just getting crazier and crazier," Rogers said. "This house - two bed, two bath going for $325,000. We bought a house right on the next street in 1999 for only $45,000, and that was from a realtor selling at the market price."
In another case, the corporation sold a house to a family in 2001 for $108,000; the family resold it this year for $204,000. In four years, it almost doubled in value.
Rogers said residents have been surprised by high taxes in areas other than those affected by property values. Under current law, a 10-percent cap exists to limit the annual increase in the appraised value of the resident's home, a measure designed to avoid severe upticks and allow for steady market-value growth.
Often, homeowners will have the security of the 10-percent cap, but they will get permits to fix their porches or to make small additions to their houses without knowing the cap conditions, Rogers said. As soon as they do that, they lose the cap, and the property value skyrockets.
"In other words, let's say they got a house in 1998, and it was appraised at $45,000," Rogers said. "It was a nice, standard, older home, and in 2005 they pull a permit in order to turn a back porch into a washroom and a bedroom or something. The Travis County Appraisal District can now appraise it at full value - and full value of that guy's house is $145,000."
For this reason, he said, a lot of people no longer modify their homes, something that contributed to the stability of families in the past because it allowed them to adapt as they grew.
The GNDC has about 200 applications from people waiting for housing; all lifelong residents of the community wanting to stay in the area.
Dan Buffington, a local realtor, said the development in the area is a good thing, because he saw firsthand that a majority of the places restored were dilapidated buildings.
"A run-down building doesn't do anyone any good," Buffington said. "Development needs to provide the structure for the community to fill."
The churches
Just across the street from the GNDC is the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, a driving force behind the revitalization of the area and the end of the rampant crime that once plagued the neighborhood. The church has kept a steady relationship with GNDC through referrals, funds and research since its former leader, the Rev. Jerry Burnett, encouraged a strong community voice in the early '80s.
The Rev. J.C. Cain, current pastor of the church, sees his congregation changing; people are finding it difficult to deal with higher property taxes and rent.
"Unless people can get help from their kids or family members, it's really difficult for some of them to make it here," Cain said.
The cultural mix of the neighborhood has changed dramatically in the last four and a half years, with a predominately Hispanic community becoming more anglicized.
"We used to have one or two families a month register here," Cain said. "We've had 164 new families this year - sometimes seven to 10 register a week."
Cain said he feels development and the consequences that go with it are inevitable.
"I think we cannot avoid it. Development is going to happen, so it's not so much a question of 'Are we for or against it?'" he said. "Moreover, how do we bring it about in such a way so people's lives are not damaged?"
The Rev. Marvin Griffin, of the Ebenezer Baptist Church at East 10th and San Marcos streets, said he remembers a time when all his parishioners lived within walking distance. Now he doesn't have any worshippers who walk to services.
Griffin said he had mixed feelings about development.
"I know the town is going to grow, and I know if it grows people are going to be displaced - economic results which are sometimes painful," he said. "I look at it one way, and it's just the cost of progress."
Ebenezer is unique, Griffin said, in that they it is the largest developer in the area, which has promoted a $1 million expansion plan that assures it will be there in the future.
The change is inevitable, Griffin said. There was a 90-year-old woman who lived in the neighborhood, and as long as she lived, Griffin said, she was fighting to keep her home, but she died and the home was sold for development.
Father John Korcsmar, of the Dolores Catholic Church on Montopolis Drive, said his responsibility was to the people, no matter whether they attended his church. Otherwise, the church could thrive but ignore the people it was called to serve.
The history of families in the neighborhood gets interrupted, and generations who have grown up in the neighborhood can't continue to live there, Korcsmar said.
"The kids in the family move out of the house and get married, and want to stay close to their family - but they can't afford to buy the kind of house they need in the neighborhood, [so] they're forced to move away," he said.
A majority of Korcsmar's congregation comes from traditionally low-income, first-generation immigrant families.
"I started thinking about it, and I couldn't find any families [in my church] that didn't have at least somebody who wasn't born somewhere else," Korcsmar said. "It's an incredibly fast-growing population."
Meanwhile, Father Bud Rowland at the downtown St. Mary's Cathedral said his congregation has a different situation than East Austin, and he sees the development as an opportunity to strengthen the church and, by providing the only downtown school, to promote family units in the area.
"Eventually, families will follow these new residents, and you will see baby strollers up and down Austin streets," Rowland said.
City issues
The immediate fate of gentrification issues in East Austin will be determined by the city council. Two proposed plans are on the table for future council meetings, with a final decision slated for Dec. 1. One involves a putting hold on development for 90 days to explore the issue more closely, in following a recommendation by the Human Rights Commission; the other involves the approval of a Homestead Preservation District in the area.
The Homestead Preservation Act was passed through the Texas Legislature by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, and gives authority to the local Legislature to provide a tax finance break and community land trust to ensure that East Austin housing remains affordable for all income brackets.
Austin City Councilman Raul Alvarez said any talk of development hold will have to wait until he hears the briefing on the preservation district, scheduled for Nov. 17.
"Encouragement of affordable housing, and now with the homestead district, will all together lead to very significant steps in reducing this problem of gentrification," he said.
Staying in East Austin
Fortunately for Hilario Ancira, he will be able to stay in the area he has invested his life in cultivating. He grew spinach in what is now the parking lot of an HEB, remembers when Interstate Highway 35 was just a two-lane gravel road and attended silent movies for only a dime.
After his discharge from New Guinea following World War II, Ancira and his friends returned to Texas. He can still recall his feelings upon returning to the area.
He said he heard work was scarce in Austin, so he headed to San Antonio for a while.
"But I couldn't stay away from Austin for long. It's my home," he said.
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