Dallas City Council, Staff Spars Over ‘Not in My Backyard’ Mentality as Housing Policy Passes 12-2

On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council approved a 10-year housing policy over the objections of a council member who equated the lack of public engagement to “craziness” and pointed to flaws in the plan that she alleged exacerbate racial issues and ignore poverty. 

The Dallas Housing Policy 2033 and a separate housing resource catalog replace the city’s Comprehensive Housing Policy, which officials say lacked vision and was drafted simply to comply with requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said just 0.16 percent of the city’s population was engaged when crafting the new policy — including discussions with staff, council, and industry professionals.  

“It appears that there’s some craziness of saying that having [engaged] 2,065 people is a win,” she said. “That’s insufficient in my mind. This is a major policy that you’re looking at, 10 years out. I don’t think that we’ve done the work that we should have with the community.” 

Additionally, she said, the policy doesn’t contain any new research. 

“When we look at the racial disparity of homeownership, this is a symptom of poverty,” she said. “The focus of this council has not been on addressing poverty issues; it’s solely on exacerbating racial issues, in my opinion. What I’m not hearing is that robust conversation that says, ‘How are we going to make housing more affordable by changing, perhaps, how we develop it, including lot size and home size?’ Not everyone wants to live in a multifamily.” 

Mendelsohn suggested the policy appears to prioritize apartment complexes, a housing type she claims already saturates her district.

Council members twice attempted to “call the question” and shut down discussion on the matter, forcing it to a vote. The third effort to do so was successful, leading to a 12-2 vote adopting the policy, with Mendelsohn and District 10 Councilman Adam McGough voting against it. Mayor Eric Johnson was not present. 

Response to Criticism of Dallas Housing Policy 2033

District 3 Councilman Casey Thomas refuted the assertion that there wasn’t enough public engagement. 

“I vouch for the consultants and the level of outreach that they did,” he said. “You can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. We can fill up this chamber with a variety of topics but we can discuss other things and no one shows up.” 

Some people don’t engage because they support the direction it’s going, he added. 

City Manager T.C. Broadnax also took issue with Mendelsohn’s comments. 

“This particular policy tries to do a balance and has measured approaches to try to make sure we build into it both single-family and multifamily,” he said. “Heavy doses of multifamily have been put in the southern part of Dallas. There has been an overload of single-family and wealth-building opportunities in the northern parts of our city.”

Exclusionary zoning is preventing multifamily development in North Dallas in some cases, Broadnax added. 

“The bottom line is we don’t have enough affordable housing,” he said. “We don’t have enough places that people are willing to accept affordable housing, whether single-family or multifamily. I think this policy sets our goals to try to accomplish that. We can’t keep saying we need more affordability and keep agreeing to, in some cases, when certain neighborhoods don’t want multifamily around them or in them, just saying that’s OK because that’s not what this council has said throughout all of your conversations. Multifamily is fine until it shows up in your neighborhood. We’ve got to get past that as a community. I think this policy will help us do that.” 

Director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization David Noguera said the new policy serves as a guiding light or a North Star. It’s a policy; it does not specifically identify funding sources or the number of housing units the city aims to deliver in a particular time period, Noguera added. Funding conversations will take place during the budget process, discussions with the Housing Policy Task Force, and in the 2024 Bond Election discussion, officials said. 

“We’re starting with engagement,” he said. “We’re using more of a targeted approach rather than waiting for developers and residents to come to us and sprinkling around investments citywide. We’re working with the community to identify what those targeted areas would be. Then we’re Investing in those targeted areas in a comprehensive manner.”

Everything You Need to Know About Dallas Housing Policy 2033 And Why it Matters 

Some areas of Dallas are “out of balance” in terms of apartment complexes and single-family homes, Noguera said. His department is looking at the housing needs in each individual council district. 

“As we start to identify those target areas, we’ll take a deeper dive to look at where it’s appropriate to look at single-family versus multifamily,” he said. “And not just multifamily but what scale of multifamily.’ 

Each council district has different needs, Noguera explained. 

“Some target areas may be established communities that need affordable housing,” he said. “In other target areas, there may be greenspace that needs new development. It won’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. It will be customized to what the residents, the stakeholders, and the council are telling us is needed in those areas.”

Establishing Trust

Thomas, who shepherded the document through the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, said the adoption of the housing policy was a long time coming. 

“I think this has re-established trust with communities that had developed a lack of trust because of the level of engagement and input that was given,” he said. “To build on that level of trust, I think we need to include a dashboard that will be available to the community.” 

District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, who serves as deputy mayor pro tem, said his constituents are not fighting apartment complexes and density. Narvaez is running in the May 6 election against Tony Carrillo, Monica Alonzo, and Sidney Robles Martinez.

“We hear about [Not in My Backyard] versus [Yes in My Backyard],” he said. “Not everybody wants apartment complexes, but we’ve been working very hard to have a YIMBY attitude because we care more about our fellow human being than we care about dollars.”

Additions to Dallas Housing Policy 2033

District 1 Councilman Chad West proposed additions to the resolution adopted Wednesday in an effort to ensure the plan would be implemented with public engagement and accountability. 

“Past housing policies and plans such as ForwardDallas and Neighborhood Plus experienced implementation failures due to lack of Council and staff commitment to a sustainable plan for policy implementation,” West wrote in a memo to Broadnax. “The Dallas Housing Policy 2033 is … comprehensive and aspirational, and implementation will only be successful with the sustained engagement of many internal and external partners, along with the acquisition of far greater resources directed at reversing the Dallas growing housing affordability gap.”

West is seeking re-election on May 6, running against Mariana Griggs and Albert Mata. 

He asked that updates on the implementation process be presented to the appropriate council committee once every six months, a measure supported by a majority of the council. 

“We do this with our other policies — Racial Equity and Economic Development — and I believe the housing policy deserves the same respect,” West said.