The ECDC provides transactional business law representation to small businesses, social enterprises, artists, nonprofit organizations, and community groups in Texas. Our clients are strengthening their communities through job creation, the production and preservation of affordable housing, asset-building strategies for low-income individuals, and the provision of innovative and valuable goods and services for their communities.
This report summarizes the findings of a study examining issues that low- and middle-income households face when purchasing affordable, below-market-rate units in market-rate developments including, in particular, the City of Austin’s developer incentive programs such as Planned Use Developments.
Asociación de Residentes de North Lamar (ARNL), a residents’ association in a mobile home park community in North Austin, organized themselves in 2015 to prevent property neglect, significant rent increases, and evictions from the property owners, who were know nationwide for promoting predatory practices by mobile home park owners.
In 2020, during the pandemic, ARNL stabilized their community by forming a resident-run cooperative nonprofit and purchasing the mobile home park. Working collaboratively with community organizations and city staff, Clinic students represented ARNL in the real estate and lending work necessary for the purchase of the mobile home park and helped them formalize as a resident-owned cooperative nonprofit corporation through forming a nonprofit corporation, drafting bylaws, facilitating strong corporate governance. and issue spotting on matters of property management.
Multicultural Refugee Coalition (MRC) is an Austin nonprofit working to create opportunities for refugees through both training and employment via three social enterprises: Open Arms (which is IKEA’s first US-based social enterprise partner), Shared Voices, and New Leaf.
ECDC students assisted MRC with preparing customer contracts, revising corporate documents, assisting with tax law compliancy, and intellectual property.