In a city as rapidly growing as Austin, you can sometimes feel like the cityscape changes in the blink of an eye. But that’s not the case in Hyde Park. You can walk along Duval Street or Speedway and almost forget the massive transformational shift happening in other parts of the city. And that is, of course, by design.

Earlier this summer, the Austin Independent School District and Austin Habitat for Humanity celebrated a partnership that will soon provide 30 affordable homes across two developments in East Austin. It’s part of a long-standing effort on the part of the district to find a way to leverage its plentiful supply of acreage into affordable housing that could in turn boost enrollment.