Decibel Releases Dove Springs Documentary

“They’re telling us, ‘we gotta go,’ where do we keep going?”

This was a question put to the Decibel team months ago. We had just started reporting on housing issues in the Dove Springs community. We were talking with Jessica Vasquez, a single working mother on Section 8. Her question was specifically about the federal housing program, but it got to the heart of all our stories: what happens to people who can’t find a home?

It’s the question at the heart of our new broadcast documentary, ‘Navigating Dove Springs.’

The hour-long special features several of our stories from the past year, exploring how citywide issues like rising rent, bills and gentrification are impacting residents in one community. The special also expands on Decibel’s previous reporting, including expert voices like KUT Housing Reporter Audrey McGlinchey and longtime resident and community organizer Frances Acuna.

We found lots of challenges in the course of our reporting, but we also found a lot of resiliency and hope. Much of that was personified by the displacement prevention navigators, members of a pilot program aimed at keeping residents in Dove Springs and Colony Park in their homes. Navigators were hired in part because of their ties with the community, either having grown up or worked there. In ‘Navigating Dove Springs,’ we follow these navigators through the pilot program’s yearlong term. While they helped residents apply for assistance and find housing, they also had to grapple with the uncertain future of the program. Would it be extended? Would they be hired back to keep helping their community? It was a concern for all the navigators, including Alejandra Morales when we spoke to her a few weeks before the end of the program.

“It makes me nervous for the people that maybe heard about the program and they want to give it a chance, or maybe they need assistance, and no one’s going to be here,” Morales said.

Even though the future of the neighborhood remains uncertain, residents found the heart of their community not in buildings but in each other.

“I feel I was put on this earth to serve a purpose,” said navigator Rachel Salgado. “And that’s my purpose, to serve people.”

Navigating Dove Springs airs Thursday Oct 24 at 7:30 pm on Austin PBS and is available on demand through the PBS app and online.