Business View Magazine - April 2024

and the cities themselves. Our members will be able to ask questions about specific projects they’re working on.” “We also have a mayor’s forum that our members attend, which is another great way to meet our leaders, understand what their cities are going through, and find those collaborative solutions,” Jackson adds. The HBA also sponsors an Annual Housing Forecast event that draws more than 650 industry professionals including builders, real estate agents and brokers, vendors, architects, developers, engineers, lenders, and bankers. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Jackson stresses that the HBA also works to educate and connect with the area’s communities and residents. “Our marketing efforts range,” she notes. “Of course, we try to target our members, but we also want to go beyond them out into the general public. Because we’re trying to create that brand awareness. We do that in a lot of different ways: through social media and press releases and our events and programming. We also have a parade of homes. “This is a great way to showcase a lot of our builders and what they do, whether it’s building homes or large remodeling projects. It’s an opportunity to educate our community in what you should look for in a builder and also to promote different options for the community.” One of the HBA’s altruistic community programs is the Benefit Home, an annual construction of a home built through donations of management, materials, supplies, labor, and funds from its member companies. When the home is eventually sold, the majority of the proceeds are donated to local charities. Another program is called HomeAid Austin. HomeAid attacks homelessness with a unique collaborative approach. The association partners with local agencies that provide care to the homeless and constructs or renovates housing projects suitable to their needs with donated funds, materials, and labor.When a project is complete, it is turned over to a partner agency to own and operate, as it continues 22 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 04