Everything You Need to Know About Dallas Housing Policy 2033 And Why it Matters
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Dallas leaders acknowledged Wednesday that their rush to adopt a housing policy in May was in response to “compliance allegations” from the city auditor, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the media. They also were getting pushback from the public to invest in more affordable housing.
What resulted is a new, revamped Dallas Housing Policy 2033 presented Wednesday to the Dallas City Council.
The enhanced policy proposes to change the approach from a housing unit production model to a neighborhood revitalization model, officials said. It has the potential to be “a game changer that will change our city in a good way,” said District 3 Councilman Casey Thomas.
View the entire two-hour council presentation here.
The housing policy has come a long way since it was originally designed not as a visionary document but as a technical plan “to keep us out of trouble with HUD,” said District 1 Councilman Chad West.
“It reads like how to put together a radio,” he said of the previous policy. “Today is a big step.”
Ensuring Community Engagement
Interested residents are encouraged to review the draft Dallas Housing Policy 2033 and Wednesday’s council presentation, said Director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization David Noguera.
“We’ve got to deploy this,” Noguera said. “We’ve got to have staff in the community who are in these conversations, not just attending meetings but actively working to reach those who haven’t historically attended any of these meetings.”
Participation drastically increases when meetings are held virtually and in Spanish, he added.
The Dallas Housing Resource Catalog is slated for council review on March 8. The policy itself could be adopted as early as April, but council members expressed a desire to ensure that it’s effective and involves specific initiatives rather than just a vague framework.
“Don’t ask us to pass another piece of paper that’s going to sit on a shelf,” said District 7 Councilman Adam Bazaldua. “We didn’t get here by accident and we’re not going to change by accident. We’re going to have to change with intent. This is just a piece of paper. We’ve got to put our money where our mouth is.”
Community engagement was highlighted repeatedly as a priority, as was a discussion about expanding the administrative authority of the city manager’s office in order to expedite housing projects. Already the city manager can approve contracts of up to $100,000 without council approval, District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn pointed out.
“This isn’t just about council authority,” she said. “When it comes to the council, documents are posted and residents are able to give input. When it’s city manager authority, how are you getting community input? It’s literally not public information if the city manager is just doing it unless someone knows to request it. It’s a lack of transparency.”
Dallas Housing Policy 2033
The population of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is expected to increase by 300,000 people by 2045. City staff is tasked with determining how to house the influx of people — from Goldman Sachs executives relocating to work in downtown Dallas to young, single mothers who want to purchase their first home in a safe neighborhood.
To that end, the city’s ForwardDallas land use plan and a council-approved Racial Equity Plan come into play to ensure a variety of housing options in each council district. Plus, a new redistricting map takes effect in May.
About 100,000 housing units are currently needed in the region to reduce the burden of those paying more than one-third of their income for housing, officials said.
“What this tells me is that we need a lot of money to close the gap,” West said. “We have a bond coming up. I anticipate that we’re going to be utilizing part of the bond to close the gap for housing for police, fire, artists, musicians, and teachers.”
But would a policy document actually create more units?
Noguera said the policy is just a framework.
“To create more units, it’s going to take financial resources,” he said. “It’s going to take political will. It’s going to take a lot more than words on a paper.”
Bazaldua said the demand exists to double the city’s housing capacity each year.
“If we’re not doubling our capacity every year and investing in addressing that issue in an aggressive manner, then we are not as serious as we are saying we are on this piece of paper in addressing displacement,” he said.
Growing capacity is also the responsibility of the private sector, Noguera explained.
Why The Housing Policy Matters
While there was some disagreement among elected officials around the horseshoe Wednesday, a common theme was that the housing policy is a big deal and affects all residents, whether they’ve owned a home for a long time or are trying to find an affordable place to live.
While the conversation was about racial equity for some, others emphasized housing affordability, gentrification prevention, increasing housing stock, or expediting permitting for affordable housing.
Noguera said all those factors have to come together with the goals of neighborhood revitalization and quality of life.
“I can take you around to each of the projects that we’ve done, but having a unit is not the same as changing the quality of life for the people who live in that area,” Noguera said. “You can have a new home or a fixed-up home, but if they’re still selling drugs next door, if every time it rains your front yard floods out, if you’ve still got to worry about walking around the street and getting bit by a wild dog or some other issue, we haven’t improved the quality of life for those folks.”
The director of housing added that he’s not suggesting he could wave a magic wand and solve all the problems, but he recognizes the importance of integrating city initiatives.
“We can bring the players to the table who specialize in those things that are not the production of housing,” he said. “At the end of the day, you don’t just have a nice house. You have an improved quality of life.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Omar Narvaez supported extensive community engagement, noting that residents who aren’t registered Dallas voters or don’t speak English also need to be heard.
“When we put dollars before people, we fail,” Narvaez said. “This is going to cost a lot of money, but we shouldn’t shy away from it. We’ve got to be thinking long-term. We’ll figure it out, and we’ll do that together.”
