Earlier this week. Austin Housing Authority welcomed mayors from across the country to Pathways at Chalmers Courts in East Austin, where they came to see what affordable housing can look like when it is built around the people who live there.
The visit was part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ National Affordability Tour, which highlights practical ways cities are responding to rising living costs. Austin was selected as the tour’s housing-affordability stop, and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson hosted the delegation:
- Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego, California, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
- Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird of Lincoln, Nebraska
- Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri
- Mayor Arunan Arulampalam of Hartford, Connecticut
The group spent the morning touring housing efforts across Austin. Chalmers Courts was the final stop, and Mayor Watson introduced it as “this really glorious example of what can be done.”
A Neighborhood Transformed
Chalmers Courts opened in 1939 as one of the earliest public housing communities in the country. Through a three-phase redevelopment using HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, AHA replaced 158 aging public housing apartments with 398 modern, mixed-income affordable homes.
How that happened matters as much as the numbers. Residents stayed in their homes until new buildings rose across the street, then moved once, into the finished community. They helped shape its design through surveys, workshops and design votes. The result adds affordable homes in central Austin while keeping families connected to their neighbors and to the East Austin roots that have defined Chalmers for more than 85 years.
More Than a Place to Live
As they walked the community, the mayors learned about the services located right where residents live:
- A Boys & Girls Club, operated in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of the Austin Area
- A CommUnityCare health and dental clinic
- Workforce development, GED classes and other adult education
- Resident services staff who connect families with resources
When a child can walk to after-school programs and a parent can see a doctor or prepare for a GED without leaving the neighborhood, a home becomes a foundation. That is the heart of AHA’s approach: not simply providing housing, but connecting families with opportunities for greater stability, health and self-sufficiency.
Residents Leading the Way
One of the most meaningful parts of the visit was the chance for the mayors to meet members of iMOMS (Inspiring Mothers of Many Successes), a resident-led group founded by resident leader Lupe Garcia.
iMOMS began during the pandemic as a small circle of about 20 mothers who organized to support one another. Today it includes more than 60 women living in AHA communities and focuses on women’s empowerment, education, leadership and community connection, from career workshops and backpack drives to an annual Women’s Empowerment Conference.
Lupe and other iMOMS representatives shared their experiences with the delegation. Their presence made an important point: AHA residents are not simply recipients of services. They help shape their communities and create opportunities for their neighbors.
Where Policy Meets the Pavement
In his remarks, Mayor Watson said cities and mayors are the ones responsible for making sure, as he put it, “the policy meets the pavement.”
“We have to get those things done because they’re going to make a direct impact on people’s lives,” he said.
He also noted that local creativity cannot meet the need alone, and that cities need a fully engaged federal government as a partner to achieve lasting housing results.
Chalmers Courts shows what that partnership looks like on the ground: a federal program, local leadership, community partners and residents working together to build a neighborhood where housing and opportunity sit side by side.
AHA is grateful to Mayor Kirk Watson for his leadership in bringing fellow mayors to Austin, and to Mayor Gloria and the U.S. Conference of Mayors for choosing Austin as the tour’s housing-affordability stop. We thank Mayor Gaylor Baird, Mayor Lucas and Mayor Arulampalam for spending time with our community; Lupe Garcia and the women of iMOMS; the residents of Pathways at Chalmers Courts; our community partners, including Boys & Girls Clubs of the Austin Area and CommUnityCare; and the AHA staff who made the visit possible.
Every city faces its own version of the affordability challenge. We are proud to share what we have learned at Chalmers Courts, and to keep learning from communities across the country, as we continue Building Stronger Communities, one neighborhood at a time.
