Dallas City Council’s Budget Prioritizes Housing Through Increased Funding And Policy Changes 

The Dallas City Council has been meeting weekly to trudge through the city’s budget process, and while housing issues don’t always garner the headlines, it’s clear that elected officials are putting time and money into the matter. 

At least four funding allocations and program changes have been approved over the past month. The city council unanimously adopted a $4.75 billion budget Sept. 28, based on a tax rate of 74.58 cents per $100 assessed valuation. The budget was originally proposed at $4.51 billion; the hike is due to an “accounting issue” identified late in the process, city officials said last week.

CandysDirt.com recently reported that Amendment 10, approved in early September,  will provide 10 new code enforcement officers assigned to address violations at apartment complexes throughout the city. Funding for the new officers, totaling about $866,100, was taken from the city’s Pension Stabilization Fund. 

Homeless-Supportive Housing

The Dallas City Council also last month allocated up to $3 million as a financial guarantee for master leasing or other similar arrangements that support the creation of homeless-supportive housing. 

The measure, referred to as Amendment 12, reduces the gap in affordable housing for Dallas’s most vulnerable residents, city officials said. 

The initiative was introduced by Mayor Eric Johnson along with council members Adam Bazaldua, Cara Mendelsohn, and Tennell Atkins — an unlikely group of allies that Atkins referred to as “the Odd Quad.” Despite the group’s occasional differences of opinion at the horseshoe, they agreed on the need for housing the homeless.

“I’ve been tracking this for probably 15 years and I don’t recall the city being involved in master leasing previously,” Mendelsohn said. “It’s a big deal for a city to do this. It’s not uncommon for a nonprofit to do this because there’s an ease for them to … rent out an entire building. It’s easy for them to manage it that way. For a city to do it is really a big step.” 

Home  Improvement And Preservation Program 

The City Council approved a consent agenda item on Sept. 28 authorizing an amendment to the Comprehensive Housing Policy. 

The change allows the Home Improvement and Preservation Program to expand the type of third-party organizations that may administer the Major Home Rehabilitation Program and the Home Reconstruction Program. 

While there wasn’t any public discussion on the matter, supplemental documents show that the city has made numerous changes to this section of the policy since it was adopted in 2018 to incentivize the development of high-quality sustainable housing. 

The Comprehensive Housing Policy sets overall production goals for homeownership and rental units “along with respective income bands that will be prioritized within the production goals and also set forth various programs, tools, and strategies to be used to meet the production goals while also overcoming concentrations of poverty and racial segregation.”

Minor Repairs

Amendment 11, approved last month, allotted an additional $100,000 to Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization’s Minor Repair Program. The measure was proposed by District 14 Councilman Paul Ridley. 

“There is an unmet need in that department for such a program focused on our senior citizens,” Ridley said. “Currently there is no particular program to assist seniors who are income-qualified and cannot afford to pay contractors directly and are physically incapable of carrying out their own repairs.” 

The budget allocation would fund loans or grants for 10 to 20 qualified residents, Ridley explained. 

The city already has a program in place to assist with minor repairs, but it’s not specified for senior citizens, said Director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization David Noguera. 

“There is an incredible need for home repair services,” he said. “The cost of addressing that need is a seven-figure number. The question is, do we have the resources to deliver those services? That’s really where the balancing act comes into play.”

The program will cover about $5,000 per home for repairs such as roofing, window replacement, HVAC systems, and door replacement, Noguera said. 

Four nonprofits deliver home repair services for the city, to the tune of about $300,000, Noguera added. With the additional $100,000 approved for senior home repairs, the city could “right size” its contracts with the nonprofits.

“At this stage, it’s largely based on their capacity, because we’re looking for them to carry out the work,” he said.