A Home for Everyone
Build Galveston is a Vision Galveston initiative and a nonprofit community development corporation—the island’s singular entity focused on workforce housing.
We’re committed to the island becoming a more diverse and equitable community. Anyone who works in Galveston—first responders, teachers, healthcare workers, and young families—should be able to afford to live in homes in healthy neighborhoods on the island.
To make this happen, Build Galveston is acting to connect, leverage, and utilize resources to strengthen our community’s social, physical, and economic environment.
The Data
Since 2010, Galveston has lost an estimated net total of 775 families with children. The loss of affordable housing partly affects the disappearance of young families on the island.
More than 65% of island workers commute from off the island (equating to an estimated 21,255 people working in Galveston who don’t live in Galveston). Fifty percent of Galveston residents have a housing cost burden where their income to cost of housing ratio is too high, making it harder to afford other living expenses.
In their own words...
According to Vision Galveston’s research, the three top reasons Galveston workers (who live off the island) prefer the mainland:
- More affordable housing prices (37%)
- Higher quality neighborhoods (22%)
- School district preferences (21%)
Our Approach
By the end of 2025, BUILD Galveston’s goal is to increase the supply of workforce housing by developing and preserving more than 150 apartments and houses.
-AND-
converting 2% of the current commuter population to residents.
Community Development Corporation
After its incorporation as a community development corporation, Build Galveston retained consulting firm Urban Focus to identify and study potential workforce housing sites, high-impact areas (infill housing or more significant mixed-income housing development sites) that potential development partners could use.
As part of a public awareness and continued engagement effort, Vision Galveston also published a three-part blog series detailing population loss on the island:
1
Pariticularly among young families
2
The rise of short-term rentals.
3
Collective cause of and effect on Galveston.
In early Fall 2021, Texas monthly published a feature story that detailed the need for workforce housing in Galveston (driven by housing inventory constraints caused by tourism and other influences) and Vision Galveston’s work to mitigate these factors.
In November 2021, The Galveston Daily News published a special report about housing costs on Galveston Island, delving into the many facets of housing, including its effects on the local economy and culture. The story also detailed work by local leaders, including Vision Galveston.