A broad coalition of nonprofits, businesses, and community groups launched a campaign Monday to push the City of Dallas to include $200 million for affordable housing in its $1 billion 2024 bond package.
The city’s needs, the advocates say, are urgent: By 2033, Dallas needs to build or refurbish about 100,000 affordable homes — both rentals and for-sale units — to meet the housing demand of this fast-growing city.
Already, there’s a major shortage of rental units that moderate- and lower-income households can afford. And homeownership has moved increasingly out of reach even for people earning middle-class incomes.
At a launch party for the new coalition, Ashley Brundage from the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas framed it as an existential challenge to the city’s future prosperity. Allowing the deepening affordability crisis to continue will sap the city’s ability to attract businesses and keep its residents.
“Too many attempts to solve problems in Dallas start and end in a study or a report that ends up collecting dust. We are here for action,” Brundage said. “We know what the problem is, and we are clear on the solution we need. The city of Dallas is facing a shortage of attainable homes and rental units, and this shortage is only expected to worsen as the city continues to grow.”
Huge swaths of the city are out of reach for would-be homeowners in fields that once guaranteed a solid middle-class life. Teachers and firefighters, for example, can’t afford the price of a median home in seven of the city’s 14 council districts — almost all of them in amenity-rich northern Dallas.
For medical assistants, waiters and cashiers, only the four council districts offer typical rental rates that they can afford, according to the coalition’s data.
The four most common jobs in Dallas, Brundage said, have median wages below $40,500.
That worker could afford a roughly $100,000 home, but the number of homes that cost around that dropped by 38,000 between 2016 and 2021.
That $40,500 wage isn’t even enough to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment anymore: A worker needs to earn at least $53,050 to do that, according to data from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
Without a major investment to build new affordable housing and preserve the housing stock that already exists, this affordability crisis will only worsen, she said.
“We aren't only talking about teachers and firefighters and police officers who are very important to our city. We're also talking about the laborers in our city that help our economy run,” she said. “We're talking about the barista that you talk to each morning as you get your coffee or your office administrative assistant that keeps things going on a day-to-day basis. They are being priced out of our city and are not going to be able to live here much longer.”
'Build a better Dallas'
The Dallas City Council is in the process of deciding what will be included in a $1 billion capital bond program for next year’s bond election. The coalition is hoping to build public pressure by asking residents to prioritize housing when filling out the city’s bond survey.
By this fall, they’ll decide exactly how the money will be divvied up across five broad categories: Streets and transportation, parks and recreation, flood control and storm drainage, critical city facilities like libraries and police stations, and economic development, housing and homeless solutions.
If voters approve, they’ll give city officials a greenlight to issue general obligation bonds to raise money to build or renovate infrastructure and buildings. Typically, cities pay for bricks-and-concrete needs by taking on long-term taxpayer-approved bond debt, and fund the ongoing operations, services and programs out of revenues from property and sales taxes as well as service fees.
The 2024 bond package will not raise taxes, city officials have said.
The coalition’s $200 million housing goal exceeds the recommendation from the city’s Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development, which recommended to council that $150 million in 2024 bond money go toward building and preserving affordable housing.
The Office of Homeless Solutions asked for $34 million in bond funds as well.
But a recent memo from Assistant City Manager Robert Perez laid out a possible scenario that knocks funding for affordable housing down to $80 million and $20 million for homeless housing. That same scenario would put a combined $550 toward streets, transportation and parks. That’s close to the opening proposal from City Manager T.C. Broadnax laid out in March.
“I think the question we need to consider is: Does the city plan on addressing our housing crisis by letting people sleep in those parks?” Brundage asked at the coalition launch event.
Since 2006, Dallas has approved about $46 million in bond funds for affordable housing, according to city documents.
By comparison, just last year, Austin voters approved $350 million. Columbus, Ohio, approved $200 million for affordable housing, as did Palm Beach County, Florida.
This kind of major funding to build and preserve affordable housing in Dallas is necessary to meet the policy priorities laid out in the city’s recently adopted housing policy, Brundage said. The Dallas Housing Policy 2033 plan calls for major investments by the city to undo a long history of discrimination and disinvestment that has left Dallas as one of the most economically and racially segregated cities in the nation.
“The 2024 Capital Bond presents a huge opportunity to build a better Dallas. We are in a golden moment where we are able to match funding to policy,” Brundage said.
Building support
Convincing the city council is just the first step. Voters will need to approve the plan, which means the coalition needs to build public support for the bond package.
“Dallas has traditionally been known as the city that can do stuff, but it's primarily for … large developments, for signature projects,” said Vincent Parker, board chair for the Golden S.E.E.D.S. Foundation.
He pointed to projects like Klyde Warren Park or the $3.7 billion plan to build a new convention center, which voters approved last fall. But Parker said the city’s record isn’t very strong when it comes to applying that visionary, can-do spirit to the needs of workaday people.
That’s left teachers, firefighters and city staffers less and less able to build a middle-class life in Dallas, he said.
“We want the big signature project, but we do not supply the foundation for people who make the city run to be able to live here,” he said.
Parker, who also pastors the Golden Gate Baptist Church in The Bottoms neighborhood, said this coalition feels like the best shot he’s seen in decades to improve housing opportunities for people who don’t make a lot of money.
The coalition’s nearly 70 members include major institutional players like Children’s Health, Dallas College, and Charles Schwab Bank. Nonprofit juggernauts like the Communities Foundation of Texas, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity are on board.
Chambers of commerce representing Black, Hispanic, and Asian business owners signed on, as did the business-friendly North Texas Commission.
Nonprofit and for-profit housing and real estate outfits make up the bulk of the membership. They’re joined by a homeless services organizations, several grassroots neighborhood advocacy groups, and social justice and fair-housing organizations.
“This is the broadest coalition I have seen put together to address this issue, so I am encouraged by that,” he said. “I think there's many on the city council who see the need, not just those who serve in the southern sector of the city. And I believe that that … there's beginning to be enough [powerful city elites] who can make a difference.”
Got a tip? Christopher Connelly is KERA's One Crisis Away Reporter, exploring life on the financial edge. Email Christopher atcconnelly@kera.org.You can follow Christopher on Twitter @hithisischris.
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