University of Texas researchers say they have mapped Austin’s gentrification and will present their findings to the Austin City Council on Tuesday.

The group, commissioned by the city in August 2017, used census tract data to create an interactive map that identifies neighborhoods where lower-income residents have been displaced by development and rising property values and where that process is spreading.

"The maps produced show striking levels of change, including an alarming loss of low-income persons of color from several areas of Austin’s eastern crescent," Jake Wegmann, one of the study authors and a School of Architecture professor, said in a statement Monday.

A demographic map published by a University of Texas gentrification study uses data such as homeownership, racial change, educational attainment and income to track changes to the Austin metro region since 2000. Credit: University of Texas

The researchers confirmed that gentrification is mostly occurring in Central East Austin. But they also found signs of similar change happening in what the researchers called the "eastern crescent," an area stretches from East Austin to the eastern edges of North and South Austin, including the St. John’s neighborhood in the Northeast and Montopolis south of the Colorado River.

Study co-author Heather Way, a UT law professor, said the interactive map will allow the city and residents to better understand how severe the demographic changes are in each neighborhood.

"It allows us to take a more nuanced look to understand what stage of gentrification a neighborhood is in and help policymakers tailor strategies to help those specific communities," Way said.

The researchers looked at demographic changes and market values of neighborhoods to place them into different stages of gentrification. Of the 200 neighborhoods mapped, the researchers found 16 with ongoing gentrification or in the late stages of gentrification and 23 increasingly high-value neighborhoods with vulnerable communities.

The stage of gentrification will determine which strategies will be most effective to help lower-income residents remain, according to the researchers. Land acquisition and preservation of multifamily residential properties could be a solution for neighborhoods in the early stages, Way said, but this may prove too expensive in neighborhoods in the late stages of gentrification.

"In late stages, creating additional affordable housing opportunities on properties owned by public entities or nonprofits will be more effective," Way said.

In their report, the researchers also include case studies of successful anti-gentrification efforts in Portland, Ore.; Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C.; and East Austin, where the first land-trust home in Texas was established in 2012.

The examples of Portland and Washington, where millions of dollars have been spent by city governments, show early intervention and substantial investment will be necessary for Austin to help residents, Way said.

"The city is going to have to act boldly to make systemic impact and address the issue of displacement from gentrification," Way said. "If not, we’re going to lose the cultural diversity of Austin neighborhoods."

Way said the report to the city will include mapping instructions that researchers hope policymakers will use to continue updating the map with new census data.

The researchers presented their report to the city’s Anti-displacement Task Force of appointed volunteers and local activists last Friday. The task force is working on a separate report of recommendations for the city to address gentrification.