Dallas to Streamline Home Repair Programs Into One Simple Application Process

It’s time to change the way Dallas offers home repair programs to residents, Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry said in an Oct. 8 memorandum to City Council members. 

Challenges and barriers with the current program create an obstacle in providing effective customer service as the programs compete with one another, the assistant city manager explained in his memo. 

Al-Ghafry suggested amending Dallas’ multiple home repair programs into “one streamlined program statement” so residents just have to say they need a repair and city staff determines the program and funding source that best suits their needs. 

“By streamlining the application process and creating one general home repair program, Housing can also improve external partnerships with other agencies, which may offset the burden of cost to the City of Dallas and increasingly leverage the resources of philanthropic communities and nonprofit partners,” he said. 

Council members appear to agree that something has to change. 

Home repair is important not just because it’s a laudable goal, but because it preserves affordable housing, District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said. 

District 3 Councilman Zarin Gracey suggested the city should be responsible for “the guts” of home repair and partner with nonprofit organizations for exterior projects. 

Streamlining Home Repair Programs

Assistant Director of Housing Thor Erickson said the city has eight home repair programs with multiple subprograms, the oldest of which was created in 2005. 

The council adopted a Comprehensive Housing Policy in 2018, along with the Home Improvement and Preservation Program. 

“Every year we have created or amended a home repair program in order to achieve efficiencies where we have a very finite amount of staff but an ever-growing amount of different programs with different terms,” Erickson said during a September committee briefing. “We need to be able to serve residents but we need to have more consistency in our home repair programs.” 

Council members have been asking for years if there’s a way to make it easier for residents to apply rather than trying to figure out which program best suits them and if they qualify. Some programs require residents to show up on a designated Saturday morning and compete for funding, Hunger Games-style, homeowners have told CandysDirt.com.

“We’re seeking to create one home repair program that encompasses the full suite of home repair needs from emergency to reconstruction that touches on the funding source available that can be applied to that program,” Erickson said.

A follow-up briefing is scheduled before the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee later this month with a presentation at a City Council meeting in November or December. 

Mendelsohn said in a September committee meeting she supports a streamlined program and encouraged Housing staff to keep it simple. 

“I think you are spot-on about flipping this process,” she said. “I hope when you come back to us it will not have a cute name. It will be something like ‘Home Repair Program,’ so everybody understands exactly what it is and from the resident perspective, all they’re seeing is one common app.”

Council members suggested a flowchart be used by staff to determine whether funding is expiring or serves a certain population. 

“You as technical experts can match the funding to the resident seamlessly,” Mendelsohn said. “They don’t need to know which pot it’s coming from.” 

Addressing Home Repair Challenges

District 1 Councilman Chad West explained to supporters in his weekly newsletter that “in a nutshell, staff believes — and City Council seemed to opine recently — that we have too many programs related to housing preservation and repairs. 

“We don’t seem to be doing any of them well,” West said. 

Al-Ghafry noted in his memo that four questions were raised at the Sept. 19 Housing and Homelessness Solutions meeting, which he said would be addressed in the follow-up presentation later this month.

The questions include:

• A request for current program budgets and expenditures with the total people served over the past few years including the Historical Freedman’s Town. 
• A request to explore both internal and external partnerships that would help offset costs to the City of Dallas which could prove to be more effective in leveraging resources (i.e., Dallas Area Agency on Aging, Small Business Center, Philanthropic communities, and real estate non-profit partners). 
• A request for an update on the contractors and how they are qualified.
• An inquiry regarding the imposing of penalties on contractors who do not complete home repairs in a consistent and timely manner. 

Additionally, equity concerns will be addressed, including an effort to ensure minority developers and contractors are properly equipped and trained for development and construction, an effort to provide affordable housing, and an effort to target low-income residents. 

City officials have said they will research other municipalities that have been successful in operating a home repair program.