WilCo summit explores county growth and challenges

Williamson County residents at the Community Impact Summit on April 22 heard that their county may soon outpace Austin for population growth. But speakers at the Round Rock event said that community leaders must work together to address the needs of their new neighbors.

The summit was sponsored by Baylor Scott White Health, Community Impact Newspaper, Georgetown Health Foundation and United Way of Williamson County.

Brian Kelsey, principal at the Austin-based Civic Analytics research firm and a lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin, told more than 200 summit attendees that Williamson County draws newcomers chiefly from 103 counties in other states and 51 counties in Texas.

“The county is growing by about 16,000 people per year and you’re gaining about 30 residents every day,” Kelsey said. “Like it or not, Williamson County is starting to resemble Travis County in a lot of important ways.”

Williamson housing costs less than Travis County housing, but not for long, he said.

“Yes, you’re still more affordable, but the gap is closing,” Kelsey said. “Are we reaching a tipping point where Austin has gotten so expensive that you guys are actually now adding more people in Williamson County from other places than Travis? That’s going to be interesting to watch.”

But one difference is that most Williamson newcomers earn less than existing county residents, unlike high-tech jobholders in the Austin area who earn a median of $240,000, he said.

“Living wage job growth—I cannot emphasize this [topic] enough,” Kelsey said. “This by far has to be the number one economic development priority, in this county, in Travis County, and every other county that’s experiencing the rapid, rapid rise in cost of living.”

Most working adults in Williamson County do not have college degrees and will have difficulty finding local jobs that pay at least $17 an hour—a living wage for one adult with one child, he said.

Such underemployment contributes to the growing nationwide problem of poverty in suburban areas, said Elizabeth Kneebone, fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. Williamson County will need better but more-accessible jobs, and must improve residents’ access to public transportation and nonprofit resources, she said.

LeAnn Powers, chief professional officer for the United Way of Williamson County, said that 1/2 million new neighbors with transportation and job needs are a concern for all county residents.

“We cannot neglect this reality,” Powers said.

Other local nonprofit group representatives in a panel discussion shared their own challenges and what the community can do to communicate better and advocate solutions for residents.

Panelists said residents need transportation not only to Austin but to locations within cities.

Residents also need to know more about existing resources, said Leander ISD social worker Felix Barnhart. Others don’t want to accept charity and are more comfortable with an organization that markets as a ministry, said Dan Hilliard with Williamson-Burnet County Opportunities Inc.

But residents may know that stable jobs frequently improves families’ lives, said Allyson Jervey, director of Jervey and Associates Psychotherapy Intervention Services.

“If I could do anything, if I could wave my wand, I would bring a major corporation to the east side [of Williamson County],” Jervey said. “I’d like to raise the taxbase and I’d like to infuse the districts, the school districts, with money.”

Local cooperation has helped Hutto volunteers consolidate duplicated programs such as school backpack programs, said the Rev. Alan McGrath, pastor of Discovery United Methodist Church and volunteer with Hutto Has Heart. Organizations in the growing town work together to share resources, information and the burdens of a growing population’s needs, McGrath said.

“We are heading out into a torrential downpour storm with a three-dollar umbrella,” he said.

Kneebone said several community-wide programs are positive examples of cooperation that bridge gaps between fragmented areas, such as Neighborhood Center Inc. in Houston.

“If we don’t adapt to the changing geography of poverty and opportunity, we run the risk of creating a lot more entrenched problems and generational problems that cities have been dealing with for decades,” she said. “It really is an urgent call to action.”

Kelsey said Williamson County can outpace Austin with better communitywide social help.

“Have you guys ever heard this, ‘Austin is the home of big ideas?’” Kelsey said. “We have not exactly been living up to that standard in Austin lately. I am hoping that you guys can give the region a little bit of a boost in this area. … Become the home of big ideas. Take the mantle away from Austin. Promote the rivalry a little bit. That’s something I would like to see.”