An Austin Teacher Asks: “Texas, Who Will Teach Your Kids When Housing Affordability Drives Us Out?”
This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Southern Urbanism Quarterly. It is shared here with permission. All images for this piece were provided by the author.
An accessory dwelling unit (ADU). (Source: Flickr/Sightline Institute.)
Although I am proud to be a Texan, I cannot ignore the decline of this great state. The affordability crisis, in large part due to housing affordability, has reached an unacceptable zenith.
I am a preschool teacher who teaches toddlers Monday through Friday while also working at a restaurant Saturdays and Sundays, doing my best to make ends meet. I struggle to make a living as a college-educated Texan, wife, and mother, working two jobs with no homeownership in sight. But Texas could change that by passing legislation that would allow homes I could comfortably afford, like smaller-lot homes and “granny flats,” aka accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
I work as a lead guide at a prominent Montessori academy. My father, a Texas native and Marine Corps veteran, often told me of the wondrous opportunity the state of Texas offers to industrious individuals. My salary, after the deduction of vital health insurance necessary for my husband and son’s asthma care, barely covers half my rent. Because of this, I work on the weekends at a restaurant and take occasional financial help from my parents, as little as possible and only as much as my pride will allow.
Unfortunately, mine is not an uncommon story, and I have seen a number of hard-working, talented teachers leave my school simply because Austin is too expensive to live in. I have mentally calculated how much I can spend on lunch (trust me, it’s not much) so that I can make the long commute to work, a sometimes two-hour round trip to my home in Cedar Park. I have offered to share what little I have with assistant guides who cannot afford gas to make it to work. I have looked into the eyes of parents worried about the high turnover rate and told them it will surely get better, knowing that it will not because housing prices keep climbing.
I, and many teachers like me, are doing all that we were told would grant us simple but autonomous lives. I work seven days a week, every week, and still homeownership is beyond my grasp, save in my most ludicrous fantasies. My husband and I care for a nation’s disabled veteran and my handicapped mother, and still we calculate exactly how much we’ll have after paying rent. But by allowing smaller kinds of housing, this homeownership fantasy can become a reality for teachers, nurses, and young professionals.
Now, being from a military family and having immersed myself in the idealism of Texas, I am strongly opposed to the notion of handouts. But what I’m asking for is not a form of charity. I ask simply to cash in on the American promise of stability through hard work and unfailing optimism. This is a plea to Texas legislators to permit ADUs and medium-size lots that teachers like me can actually afford.
I am respectfully asking our state officials for deep consideration of the Texas middle class—public servants and workers. A group that is dwindling, drowning, and dying. A group that the community depends on to perform such lofty work for our society. Educated and hardworking people like me who make in the $40,000–$50,000 range and hope to afford homeownership at some point in their lives.
While lawyers, legislators, and business owners are busy working, there are teachers like me watching your children and grandchildren, your nieces and nephews. There are servers to bring you your food. There are nurses to support life-critical surgeries. Please, help us, so that we can continue to serve our Texas communities. Please, help us, and protect the dream of the hardworking Texan by reforming our zoning codes to allow for affordable housing.
Kristina Pollard is a Montessori teacher/guide in the Austin area, as well as a restaurant host.