Dallas approves affordable housing plan

The Dallas City Council approved an affordable housing plan focused on mending racial disparity. 

The plan targets disinvested areas with poor infrastructure, inadequate affordable housing and communities affected by segregation, KERA News reported. The policy will replace the city’s Comprehensive Housing Plan, adopted in 2018.

The policy calls for increased production of for-sale and for-rent housing designated for low- and middle-income residents. The city is also focused on preserving “naturally occurring” affordable options to prevent them from being demolished and replaced with upscale developments that push residents out, the outlet said.

“Rather than just waiting for developers and residents to come to us and sprinkling around investments citywide, we’re working with the community to identify what those target areas will be, and then investing in those areas in a comprehensive manner,” David Noguera, head of Dallas’ Housing and Neighborhood Services, told the outlet.

The city hasn’t yet cultivated a specific plan for attaining funds. Thus, neither a proposed budget nor production goals were detailed in the policy.

The plan also calls for broad production of affordable housing across the city, rather than concentrated areas. Many less expensive apartments are crammed into South Dallas, where there are higher Black and Latino populations and lower income households, while zoning restrictions in North Dallas have contributed to keeping affordable housing out, City Manager T.C. Broadnax said.

Some council members opposed the policy, such as Cara Mendelsohn, who said it over-emphasized building apartments for rent and should encourage more home ownership instead. 

Aside from affordability, the city hopes to remedy housing inequities faced by Black and Latino communities. 

The median home value in Dallas is $295,000 for white homeowners, $90,000 for Latino homeowners and $85,000 for black homeowners, the plan states. One in seven white owners report severe housing problems, such as poor plumbing or kitchen facilities, while one in four black households and one in three Latino households report similar problems, it said. 

—Quinn Donoghue