Dallas to aid 3 underserved areas
They’ll be prioritized for new infrastructure.
The city of Dallas has announced three target areas — all in southern Dallas — that will be the focus of its housing equity work to help historically underserved communities.
February 20, 2024
Article
The selection of the three target areas is just one step in the implementation of the Dallas Housing Policy 2033, which the City Council adopted last April.
Homes in the target areas have lower median sales prices, less stability and more vacancies than the city of Dallas as a whole, and the population in those areas has higher social and economic vulnerabilities, according to data compiled by TDA Consulting.
In these areas, the city aims to prioritize developing much-needed infrastructure — including streets, sidewalks and utilities — as well as building affordable homes and rental units, and using tools to limit the displacement of current residents.
TDA Consulting was contracted by the city in May 2023 to help implement the housing policy. The firm’s CEO, Dionne Roberts, described Dallas’ vast housing needs in a January meeting of Dallas’ Housing and Homeless Solutions committee.
“Narrowing [the target areas] down from 15 to 3 was perhaps the hardest part because there are a number of areas in the city that have significant need,” she said.
However, the target areas are intended to identify places where investments from both public funds and private market projects are already focused so that the city can make the most impact, Roberts said.
Dallas City Council member Chad West said he had expected a more aggressive timeline for implementing the Dallas Housing Policy 2033.
“We’ve been working on this housing policy, we approved it almost a year ago, and we’re really just hearing about one pillar of seven today,” West said. “At this rate, if we don’t accelerate this, it’s going to take years to roll this out.”
City Council member Cara Mendelsohn questioned the readability of the target area map but overall agreed with the selected regions.
“From what we know about our city, these look like appropriate places,” Mendelsohn said. “Why would we not pour the resources into them? And look, none of them are my area. But we have to look at this as wanting what’s best for our whole city.”
Nolan Gray, a national housing policy expert and research director at affordable housing nonprofit California YIMBY, said Dallas’ efforts to invest in targeted areas match those in other cities that have similar disparities among their residents.
“If we’re going into communities that have been historically underserved and investing in repaving the streets, installing sidewalks, installing street trees, building parks, improving libraries, schools, that makes sense,” Gray said. “Different neighborhoods have enjoyed different levels of public funding, historically, and we have to right that wrong.”
Gray said cities can use strategies to keep people from being priced out of their homes by purchasing existing affordable housing and keeping rents low, or by providing property tax relief to owners.
Three Target Areas
To select the areas, TDA Consulting developed a housing equity index that used a recently updated market value analysis and a Dallas Racial Impact Assessment Tool, which is used by city departments when making decisions like where certain facilities should be located.
“This allowed us to identify areas that had significant disparities and where they stood in the market,” Roberts said.
The 37 square miles of the selected geographic areas in southern Dallas are nearly 10% of the city and will impact City Council districts 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8. But compared to the rest of the city, the target areas have significantly lower median home sale prices and higher poverty rates.
Target area No. 1 includes 9 square miles in the Fair Park area of southern Dallas, home to 32,000 residents. The medium home sale price is about $213,000, with 5.5% of units vacant. About 55% of the households are Black and 37% are Hispanic.
Target area No. 2, home to about 42,000 residents, runs along the southern bank of the Trinity River just south of Target area No. 1. The median home sale price in the area is $233,500 and nearly 7% of the housing units are vacant. Nearly 57% of the households are Black and 40% are Hispanic.
Target area No. 3, home to about 17,000 residents, sits along Dallas’ most southern border and touches Paul Quinn College. The area’s median home sale price is $216,000 and 2.4% of units are vacant. Nearly 66% of households are Black and 27% are Hispanic.
“Overall what we’re looking for is opportunities where the communities not only have historical disparities but also where the market value has shifted significantly,” Roberts said, citing a more than 40% increase in home values over the past few years.
Target areas aren’t designed to eliminate citywide funding, Roberts said, but will be used instead to recruit for specific projects that potentially offer bonus points in future funding applications to encourage investment.
Housing Policy Efforts
The adoption of the Dallas Housing Policy 2033 follows an audit called for by former Dallas City Councilman Casey Thomas that revealed the city’s 2018 policy lacked ways to measure progress and create actual plans on how to decrease disparities in city housing.
The new policy directs the city to identify disparities in housing opportunities and reduce them, as well as increase housing production and preservation to improve affordability for mixed-income communities in all areas of the city.
The housing policy, also called DHP33, is designed into seven pillars that are meant to work together to implement strategies, leverage partnerships and revitalize neighborhoods through development.
The first pillar is identifying equity strategy target areas, followed by citywide production and preservation of housing, infrastructure, collaboration and coordination, engagement and education.
TDA Consulting is also tasked with building an inclusive housing task force, developing agreements between city departments, forming compliance policies and procedures and refining programs.
A part of deciding what areas the city should target drove TDA Consulting to create a robust community engagement plan, including virtual and in-person meetings, focus groups and a telephone town hall in which nearly 4,000 people participated.
“The community engagement was not new,” Roberts said. “This is something that has previously been occurring and it’s also not stopping.”
The firm also received 641 responses to a housing and community needs survey, the results of which helped refine the target areas.
Roberts said the level of engagement has been significantly higher than even some state-level engagement programs her firm has conducted in the past.
“I can understand that a city the size of Dallas, 641 may not appear to be a great response but … it really does speak to the level of interest in the community.”
Community Feedback
More than 60% of Dallas residents who responded to the survey said they planned to stay in their current home for more than five years. Robert says this shows residents’ commitment toward their neighborhoods and desire for future investment.
Respondents who ranked various housing activities in terms of need consistently indicated that the city’s highest needs are building more affordable housing, expanding homebuyer assistance programs and modifying existing housing.
“The one thing that didn’t rate quite so highly is demolition,” Roberts said. “I think that’s a reflection of the importance of preservation of existing housing stock, and the recognition that there’s already not enough of quality, affordable housing in the community.”
TDA plans to conduct more community outreach in the target areas and take applications for the housing task force in February to learn more about what those communities need and want for housing opportunities.
Thor Erickson, city of Dallas’ assistant director of housing and neighborhood revitalization, said at the January meeting that the next steps are to establish some goals for investment in target areas with metrics to track over time.
While the city’s implementation of its housing policy will take five years, Erickson said a dashboard that tracks department investment activity should also be online by the end of 2023.
By LEAH WATERS
Staff Writer
leah.waters@dallasnews.com