Affordable Housing

Should Dallas’ Development Incentive Funds go Toward ‘For-Sale’ Homes Instead of Apartments?

By April Towery / March 28, 2023 /

About $4.4 million has been collected since May for a little-known affordable housing incentive program known as the Mixed-Income Housing Development Bonus. The MIHDB fund was created by the Dallas City Council last year to provide incentives like changes in height, floor area ratio, density, or parking reduction in exchange for on-site affordable units. Developers…

Sommerman Says Residents Can Have a ‘Burned-Out Church And a Homeless Encampment’ or Cottonwood Forest Development

By April Towery / March 21, 2023 /

Same song, different verse: An affordable housing project is proposed on Forest Lane, and the majority of the residents don’t like it. This version involves District 2 Dallas County Commissioner Andy Sommerman, who held a public meeting Monday night on the proposed Cottonwood Forest single-family development.  Dallas County secured American Rescue Plan funds — designated solely…

Everything You Need to Know About Saturday’s District 10 Meeting With Cypress Creek Developer Sycamore Strategies

By April Towery / March 18, 2023 /

Prior to a community meeting Saturday morning on the proposed Cypress Creek at Forest Lane Public Facility Corp. apartment project, a developer said to a reporter, “I don’t expect to accomplish anything. People aren’t coming here to have their minds changed.”  It’s probably fair to say his expectations were met. Amid shouting about lies and…

Dallas Ranks No. 7 Among Nation’s Largest Metros For New Housing Permits

By April Towery / March 16, 2023 /

Nearly 1 million apartments are under construction across the U.S., and Dallas ranks No. 7 among the 50 largest metro areas in new-construction housing permits, according to a report released Tuesday.  Dallas is No. 3 in Texas, according to the report, behind Austin and Houston.  Almost 34,000 new apartments were added to the housing stock…

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s Bill Aims to Rein in ‘Out-of-Control’ Public Facility Corporation Projects

By April Towery / March 14, 2023 /

There’s a lot of buzz in Texas about Public Facility Corporation projects, and it’s made its way to the state Capitol.  Controversy surrounding the PFC financing structure, which incentivizes developers for providing affordable housing, has been praised as the only way to attain much-needed “missing middle” housing and simultaneously criticized for taking property off the…