As the city continues to evaluate ways to assist the homeless population, a new affordable housing community, The Roz, opened in Southeast Austin on April 16.
The 100-unit development offers permanent supportive housing (PSH), along with on-site social services, for individuals who have been unhoused for a year or longer. However, most of the residents currently at The Roz have been unhoused for over five years and have one or more disabilities, according to Sally Gaskins, president at SGI Ventures, a real estate developer and consultant specializing in affordable housing.
SGI Ventures, alongside the Austin Housing Finance Corporation, developed and owns the community. Each unit comes with project-based vouchers, allowing residents to live in the property as long as they wish, regardless of their ability to pay. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has contributed $2 million, about $16 million came from the 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits program, and the AHFC contributed $5.5 million to fund the development, according to Austin Housing.
Gaskins said the goal is for residents transitioning out of chronic homelessness to stabilize, become self-sufficient, and ultimately be able to support themselves. She said that the on-site social services include assisting residents in accessing benefits, replacing documents like Social Security cards and veteran ID cards, and providing transportation and grocery assistance.
“The ideal situation would be for them to be able to, as we say, ‘graduate’ to other housing,” Gaskins said. “Perhaps the next step would be a traditional, affordable development for [a] family or even senior [housing].”
“We will be serving 100 individuals at this property, but there’s still thousands more who need service funding.”
Abby Tatkow, project manager for The Roz
Gaskins said The Roz does not do any marketing, and residents are referred by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, an organization that coordinates with the Austin-Travis County Homelessness Response System.
“The best advice I think I could give for folks that are interested in [affordable] housing in any permanent supportive housing development, is to be sure that they’ve had a coordinated assessment … with ECHO,” Gaskins said.
Abby Tatkow, project manager for the housing community, said a “substantial” portion of Proposition Q – a November 2025 ballot measure – was intended to fund projects like The Roz. But Prop Q – which would have raised approximately $100 million in property taxes for city services, including ones addressing homelessness – failed at the polls.
“We will be serving 100 individuals at this property, but there’s still thousands more who need service funding to be able to reenter housing and to get back on their feet,” Tatkow said. “We’d love to see our city commit to funding those kinds of services long term so that we can really end homelessness in our community.”
Courtney Banker, housing development manager for the city, said more affordable communities like The Roz are beginning to pop up in Austin, including Cairn Point Cameron, an affordable housing development for seniors set to open this spring, and Seabrook Square, an affordable housing community near Mueller that is set to come online by the end of May.
“Looking into the future, we’re facing a much different landscape as far as [the] ability to support the services that are required to make these communities successful,” Banker said. “We really want to see as their properties come online, gain some lessons learned about how they operate, and figure out our services funding before we embark on a new PSH community.”
This article appears in May 1 • 2026.