“Denton should do more to protect renters” read the headline on the opinion page of The Dallas Morning News.
In the Sept. 10 column, Andrew Nelson, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of North Texas, and journalist Rob Curran discussed a recent eviction study in which Nelson’s team spent 16 months tracking 1,418 eviction cases in Denton County’s justice of the peace courts. Nelson and graduate students A.J. Martin and Mikaela Williams found 71% ended with a landlord victory, leaving the tenants without a home.
Nationwide, the average landlord victory rate is 60%, Nelson said.
Nelson offered examples of what other cities are doing to help their tenants. In Cleveland, Ohio, the City Council passed regulations that offer qualified low-income renters access to free legal services, increasing legal representation from 1% in 2020 to 17% in 2022.
Similar to Austin, Nelson said the Dallas City Council passed a “right to cure” ordinance that offers tenants more time to pay rent and fees.
In Denton, the City Council has been taking steps to protect renters by trying to address the lack of affordable housing in the city. On the Nov. 7 ballot, voters will be asked to approve $15 million in bond debt and levy taxes to fund “for planning, designing, acquiring, constructing, renovating, improving, and equipping affordable housing facilities and related infrastructure for low and moderate-income persons and families,” as Proposition E reads.
The money will also allow city officials to acquire land and interests in land and property necessary to address affordable housing. It could also be used for home repair programs and loans and grants for affordable housing purposes.
It’s intended to be a long-term solution to help address the lack of affordable housing in Denton, as well as one of several key findings from a city consultant’s January 2021 affordable housing report: “Renters who earn less than 50% of AMI [average median income] ($43,110), and a portion of owners (particularly first-time buyers) who earn less than 80% of AMI ($68,976), find it difficult to afford most housing in Denton without assistance.
“Service industry workers and other low-wage workers earning close to minimum wage have the greatest need.”
Close to half of the households in Denton can no longer afford to live here, council member Paul Meltzer said. He referred to them as the “ALICE” category — an acronym used by United Way that stands for “asset limited, income constrained, employed” — in an email to the Denton Record-Chronicle over the summer.
These ALICE households aren’t only filled with minimum wage earners but also professionals such as city staff, firefighters and teachers — households that earn under $65,168, which is the median for Denton, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (It’s $96,265 for Denton County.)
“It is getting very tough,” Meltzer said. “While the city government can’t set or control rents and isn’t a big enough part of the economy by itself to subsidize rent for anywhere remotely close to half of residents, we can identify the gaps in affordable housing creation and do a number of things to close those gaps and start the ball rolling for the private sector to fill in and keep going in that direction.”
The state does allow city councils to pass rent control ordinances if certain conditions are met, such as a state of disaster declaration and the council acknowledging that a housing emergency does exist. The governor must also approve the ordinance before it takes effect.
“That’s why, when I was previously on council, we passed the affordable housing strategy and toolkit — with a timetable,” Meltzer continued. “It’s also why, when we look at attracting employers here, that they need to be high wage-payers.”
A majority of council members passed the Affordable Housing Strategic Toolkit in December 2021, a year after Philadelphia-based Reinvestment Fund released Denton’s “Affordable Housing Needs & Market Value Analysis” report to council members and city staff.
The toolkit was designed to help hit six key goals that the city adopted as part of the Fair Housing Plan, as indicated in the January 2021 affordable housing report:
- Increase access to affordable housing in high-opportunity areas.
- Increase supply of affordable housing units.
- Increase supply of accessible, affordable housing for persons with disabilities.
- Make investments in targeted neighborhoods to improve access to opportunity.
- Increase access to information and resources on fair and affordable housing.
- Increase supports and services for residents with housing assistance.
Dani Shaw, the city’s director of community services, said Denton is approaching the issue as “how we can encourage” and “incentivize behavior” to bring affordable housing to the area.
Shaw said that adding housing isn’t a bad thing. Several housing projects are being developed in Denton. It just “needs to be balanced” to address all income levels.
Part of the problem with increasing access to affordable housing is that the housing market drives prices, as does the increased cost of building materials.
Home prices increased 38% between 2017 and 2021 “at a rate higher than the national average, and are now unaffordable to many moderate income families,” according to the January 2021 affordable housing report.
With the cost of goods up over 30%, Scott McDonald, the city’s director of development services, said finding someone to build a $150,000 home in today’s market is difficult — especially without incentives.
“I don’t think it is possible to build that,” McDonald said.
McDonald said that like many young people, his son, who is in his early 20s, “doesn’t have a path to buy a home” without finding a partner for a two-income household.
In the January 2021 report, the city identified eight key challenges affecting the North Texas region:
- Communities are increasingly segregated along racial and economic lines, particularly in rural vs. urban areas.
- There are neighborhoods with a high concentration of Black and Latino families in poverty.
- Public and subsidized housing is concentrated within specific neighborhoods, exacerbating the concentration of poverty.
- Housing prices are increasing rapidly, making the area unaffordable to many low-income households, including persons with disabilities and single parents.
- Low-income residents have less access to employment opportunities due to the lack of public transit.
- Many landlords discriminate against renters who have rent subsidies like housing choice vouchers.
- Neighborhoods that have a concentration of poverty are often overlooked for investment.
- There is a lack of integrated, supported, affordable housing for persons with disabilities.
The city’s consultant also highlighted the top five reasons unsheltered people in Denton report they are homelessness: inability to pay rent or mortgage, family and personal issues, and unemployment.
A year later, the annual point-in-time count revealed a 74% increase in homelessness in Denton County — from 258 receiving services in 2020 to 458 in 2022. Scott Butler, a former Denton police officer who now works to help unsheltered people for Serve Denton, said that number has nearly doubled in the city of Denton.
In the January 2021 affordable housing report, homeless advocates indicated the greatest needs to address homelessness in Denton:
- More permanent supportive housing options, including more cost‐effective and innovative solutions like “village communities” that provide housing, child services and wraparound supportive services.
- Emergency and transitional housing with supportive services for high-risk individuals and families, including victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
- For individuals who access permanent supportive housing, there is a need for wraparound services to provide tools needed to succeed such as mental health and substance abuse treatment, transportation, life coaching, workforce training and counseling.
- Eviction prevention programs that keep people in their home and prevent homelessness from ever occurring.
Mayor Pro Tem Brian Beck said affordable housing, whether single-family or multifamily, is critical to Denton’s equity, cultural and economic interests.
“But particularly on the less than 60% AMI citizens as they have decreasing options with the rampant real estate up-ticks. It’s not only vital for equity and economic reasons, but it’s vital for mobility and sustainability reasons as well,” Beck said.
“So, are we in an affordable housing crisis? I think so, yes, or on the verge.”
Not everyone on the City Council recognizes the impending crisis.
Council member Joe Holland served as a justice of the peace from 2007 to 2022 for Denton County’s Precinct 1, which covers the northern part of the county, including parts of Denton. He presided over more than 35,000 civil and criminal cases, no doubt many of those eviction cases. Justices of the peace often decide on cases involving civil disputes, evictions, misdemeanors, small claims up to $20,000 and truancy issues.
Holland said he thinks of housing, for both homeowners and renters, as market-driven. For the most part, the market governs prices, he said.
“They can’t be too high or they won’t sell,” Holland said. “They can’t be too low or fixed expenses such as taxes, insurance and maintenance costs and a reasonable profit won’t be met. But they are in the business of housing. Without willing buyers/renters, their businesses will collapse.”
For those who can’t afford housing, Holland said there are safety nets in place to help, such as Section 8, nonprofits and shelters.
“COVID certainly caused problems for many in the employment bubble,” Holland said. “But for the most part, the impact from COVID should be over. People that want to work are working. Those that have come to rely on relief are still doing so.”
For those who are struggling in Denton, Holland recommended several strategies: training to qualify for better jobs, cutting out activities that don’t correspond with low income, and becoming active in a group or organization such as veteran groups or churches that would put them in a better place to receive benefits.
“Government subsidiaries and temporary housing were intended to be just that — temporary. People able to work should be working,” Holland said. “Those unable to work will need to seek out help and follow the rules when they get it.”