City Hall Roundup: U.S. Housing And Urban Development Five-Year Plan For Dallas Unveiled 

The Dallas City Council heard an update Jan. 31 on the four grants it receives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and how city staff propose to implement them for affordable housing projects over the next five years. 

The city received $31 million in HUD grants for the 2024 fiscal year. The grants are broken down as follows: $13.8 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, $6.4 million in Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds, $1.2 million from the Emergency Solutions Grant, and $9.6 million for Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS. 

Some discussion ensued between Councilman Paul Ridley and City Manager T.C. Broadnax about how staff determines where “public service funds” are distributed. 

View the briefing packet here and the council briefing video here. 

Community engagement meetings on the five-year plan continue this month. 

Love Field Neighbors Continue Fight For Noise Reduction

The Dallas Department of Aviation held a community stakeholder meeting Feb. 8, as residents who live near Dallas Love Field continue to voice their concerns about the airport noise.  

The City of Dallas is in the beginning stages of the Terminal Area Master Plan (TAMP) update for Love Field, Steve Klein wrote in an email to neighbors.

Klein chairs the Citizens Action Committee that has organized neighbors and worked on a compromise with city officials to provide relief for the Shorecrest, Briarwood, Bluffview, Elm Thicket, and surrounding neighborhoods that are severely impacted by the noise at the “preferred” Lemmon Runway, where nearly 65 percent of flights depart from Love Field.  

Decisions on the master plan will be driven by dramatically increased flight activity at Love Field, Klein surmised. 

His email states that following the lifting of Wright Amendment restrictions in 2015:  

• Enplanements at Love Field spiked significantly, growing from 4.7 million for calendar year 2014 to 8.8 million for calendar year 2023. 
• Non-stop destinations served by Dallas Love Field grew from 21 to 71, with average flight distances increasing from 350 miles to over 700 miles.

“Per the preliminary enplanement forecast from Ricondo and Associates, enplanements are forecast to continue to increase to a plateau of 11.9 million passengers in 2040,” Klein wrote. “This is based among other factors on a projected increase in gate turns from the current average of 10.1 per gate to 11.5 by 2040 (multiply that by 20 gates), increasing passengers per flight, and changes in the aircraft fleet mix to larger capacity aircraft (based on current aircraft on order). So as you can see, there are some weighty issues to consider and a unified community voice is more crucial than ever.”

Federal Grant Funding to Address Homelessness Increased For Dallas, Collin Counties

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is awarding more than $27 million to the All Neighbors Coalition, a collective of over 140 organizations, including the Collin County and the City of Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions, for initiatives to address the unhoused population. 

The funding allocation is a 23 percent increase over what was awarded in 2022 and a 44 percent increase over 2021, when Housing Forward, the backbone agency supporting the rehousing system, led the redesign of the approach to tackling homelessness by drawing on evidence-based strategies, according to a press release. 

The All Neighbors Coalition’s collaborative efforts with area partners have been instrumental in driving the mission to provide housing for the homeless, said Christine Crossley, director of the Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions.

“Through this partnership, we are overcoming systemic barriers and developing innovative solutions that positively impact the most vulnerable in our community,” Crossley said in the press release. “By pooling our resources, knowledge, and unwavering dedication, we are revolutionizing the approach to homelessness in Dallas. This historic partnership serves as a testament to the power of entities uniting across sectors, with a shared vision, resulting in significant progress,” 

The funding is part of HUD’s $3.16 billion homelessness assistance funding to communities nationwide through its Continuum of Care program which expands housing and services projects for families, survivors of domestic violence, and individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.