Affordable housing in Dallas is becoming more scarce for renters who make less than $30,000 a year, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality shared the latest findings in a study titled "Abundance For Who?" exploring housing access and affordability in the fastest-growing metro areas in the country.
As North Texas keeps growing, more housing is going up to address the housing shortage. The study finds just over 22% of housing inventory in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area is newly built — about double the national average.
"Dallas added housing faster than any metro in the study," said Lelaine Bigelow, executive director of the center. "But when you look at who gets access to that housing, largely low and middle-low income people were left out of that housing boom."
The study also found that renter households earning more than $60,000 benefitted most from this new supply of housing. That’s leaving lower-income families with fewer options.
The study is in line with another study released last year that showed the region is the second-worst for affordable low-income housing.
One chart in the study shows that rents increased at a higher rate for low-income families in the Dallas area than other income levels. Those increases were 8.8% for very low-income households and 5% for extremely low-income renters. Rents increased by 7% for moderate, middle and high income households.
"It's clear that the housing ladder is broken," Bigelow told KERA. "Not having starter homes and not having the right type of diverse housing and having low income earners be able to get into better housing does have a cumulative effect on local economies."
The research looks at solutions, such as building more “missing middle housing” — medium-density units such as townhomes, accessory dwelling units or duplexes.
The study suggests policymakers should also prioritize locally funded financing mechanisms, improve rental assistance programs and incentivize a variety of housing developments to serve low-income families.
Dallas has made some progress on local policy, such as parking reform that allows for more space to build units, but the report says antiquated local regulations such as lengthy building permitting processes and subjective design standards contribute to the problem.
"We definitely need more public investment in housing, especially for extremely low and very low income households," Bigelow said. "There are a lot of tools in the toolbox. We just need the sort of willingness to be able to use them."
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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