Dallas Housing Coalition Launches to Advocate For $200 Million in Bond Funds

More than 75 organizations have joined forces with one bold objective in mind: convincing the Dallas City Council to allot $200 million for housing in the 2024 bond election. 

Led by a diverse steering committee, consultant Bryan Tony, and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Executive Director of Housing Stability Ashley Brundage, the Dallas Housing Coalition’s members include builders, developers, nonprofits, and financial institutions. 

The group may eventually expand to other causes and projects but today it’s laser-focused on the goal of securing more money for housing in the upcoming bond election. 

The city aims to stretch $1 billion for streets, parks, flood control, economic development, housing, homeless solutions, and critical facilities. The ballot of recommended projects will go before voters in May 2024. 

Bond Election 

A Community Bond Task Force and its subcommittees have been meeting since May and will continue to do so until a recommendation is presented to the City Council at the end of this year. 

Through consulting work with Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity and previous experience as director of public policy for The Real Estate Council, Tony knew that previously-formed housing advocacy groups were effective but dissolved over the years.

“The No. 1 and most immediate big rock we saw we could push on together was public funding in the form of the 2024 bond program,” Tony said. “Right now we’re focusing on establishing our own credibility and sustainability as a new organization.” 

The coalition is using its website and social media channels to explain things like affordable housing, attainable housing, and 30 percent area median income.

“We’ll be doing some narrative storytelling to debunk many of the myths around affordable housing,” Tony said. “There’s research that shows there’s not a negative impact on property values when what people might consider affordable housing is built next to them. There isn’t an increase in crime. We want to let folks know there are impacts on public safety and health when folks are housing unstable.” 

Developers are willing to build more affordable housing in return for regulatory or financial incentives, Tony added. 

“This is not a silver bullet, but the $200 million is a piece of the larger puzzle and an important one that Dallas has neglected to invest in previous bonds,” he said. 

The funds would ideally go toward things like housing infrastructure, home repair, apartment complex rehab, and gap financing or development assistance, Tony added. 

“Housing mostly relies on federal funds like HOME and [Community Development Block Grant] to get money out the door and that’s simply not enough,” he said. 

Dallas is Big Enough For Everyone

Homelessness is a symptom of the larger housing crisis that Dallas is facing, Tony said. 

“We have a large gap in housing supply available to all income levels and there isn’t enough diversity in what product types are available,” he said. “We want single-family homes. We want missing-middle housing, and we want [availability for] people who can afford to rent. We’re a majority rental city right now, at 55 percent. Many of those are housing-cost burdened.” 

The median income in Dallas is $58,200, and the average home price is $405,000.

Brundage, a member of the Community Bond Task Force, said she joined the Dallas Housing Coalition because Dallas has become unaffordable for many residents. 

“Based on the typical household budget of 30 percent for housing, the average household earns $90,500 short of what it needs to buy a home in Dallas.” 

The motto of the DHC is “Dallas is big enough for everyone.” 

“We need to not only close the rental gap but plan for our future,” Tony said. “We know people are still moving to the Dallas region. We don’t want to play second fiddle to the suburbs. We need to plan for Dallas’ growth. Housing staff has said we need to develop 100,000 new or refurbished affordable homes by 2033 to meet our housing demand. We’ve all come together to basically advocate for this $200 million in the upcoming bond to give people a place to live.”