Dallas Staff Outline What You Could Do With $60M From The Bond Election, And It Ain’t Much
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The projects slated for a 2024 Dallas bond election are nowhere close to being finalized, but the latest memorandum from Assistant City Manager Robert Perez suggests what can be done with a baseline starting point of $60 million for housing.
A $60 million housing bond, if approved, would fund six multifamily housing projects for a total of 1,150 units, according to Perez’s memo.
Housing advocates asked for $200 million and the Community Bond Task Force originally suggested $25 million. The $60 million figure appears to be a compromise, as city staff originally proposed $70 million for housing.
Council members, on average with not all 15 representatives responding, wanted $150 million for housing from the proposed $1.1 billion Dallas bond election, according to a December CBTF presentation.
Dallas Bond Election: The Art of Compromise
A Dallas bond election, the last of which was held in 2017, presents a challenging horse-trading game. This year, there’s a $1.1 billion pot of bond funds on the table and numerous worthy projects.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson took a hard stance on funding for parks in his inaugural address following the May election. The CBTF is stacked with parks board members and is chaired by Dallas Park and Recreation Board president Arun Agarwal. City staff originally proposed $225 million for parks; the CBTF suggested $350 million.
The Dec. 15 Perez memo does not make a recommendation for parks but outlines the costs of each specific park upgrade. For example, athletic field lighting costs $1.5 million per field and a standard park costs about $300,000.
Task force member Courtney Spellicy pointed out that while there aren’t organized picket lines and advocacy groups representing streets and drainage, those areas demand attention in the upcoming bond.
The next capital bond program briefing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Jan. 19. The deadline to order a May 4 election is in mid-February, although some council members have requested the election be pushed back to November.
Allocating Housing Bond Funds
The matter of housing is complicated when it comes to bond funds. Housing already is subsidized by federal programs. Additionally, officials have said there’s a lack of specificity when it comes to housing bond projects — so it feels a lot like throwing money arbitrarily at a problem rather than honing in on, say, a multifamily project with 191 units in an underserved community.
The other problem with proposing multifamily units is that while the need was well-established in a Child Poverty Action Lab report, not everybody wants such a project in their neighborhoods.
The Perez memo was filed a couple of weeks after Mayor Johnson took City Manager T.C. Broadnax to task for suggesting that the staff recommendations be used as a baseline rather than the suggestions of the City Council-appointed CBTF.
Perez noted in his memo that the Office of Bond and Construction Management coordinated with the City construction departments, with proposed funding from the 2024 Bond Program,” to develop a high-level summary of the improvements that would be realized through the funding amounts proposed by the Community Bond Task Force and City staff,”
“Therefore, the purpose of this memorandum is to provide City Council with general metrics, by funding level, for the various activities, projects, or programs being considered in the 2024 Bond,” the memo states.
A $60 Million Housing Bond Proposal
According to Perez’s memo, a $60 million housing bond would fund six multifamily housing projects for a total of 1,150 units, but there’s no mention of where the projects would occur or if interested developers are on board to build them.
Based on the Dallas Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization Department’s review of recent development project requests, it costs an average of $52,150 per unit for new multifamily construction, Perez said in his memo.
Therefore, a $25 million housing bond, as originally recommended by the CBTF, could build just two projects or 479 units.
The spring 2023 Child Poverty Action Lab report shows a rental unit supply gap of more than 33,600 units for those earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income, Additionally, the city has a deficit of 16,000 affordable single-family homes, according to builidingcommunityWORKSHOP.
And it matters where those homes are built, advocates have said.
“Locating housing in high-opportunity areas, with access to schools, transportation, and jobs, empowers families with tools to achieve future success, improve their health outcomes, and realize upward economic mobility,” the CPAL report states.
