Cara Mendelsohn
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn raised an interesting point during a discussion about affordable housing at Friday’s Dallas City Council meeting on the 2024 bond election. Why spend bond dollars — which require issuing debt and paying interest — on affordable housing when there are already more than a dozen mechanisms in place that could accomplish the…
There was no shortage of people to write about on the Dallas City Hall beat at CandysDirt.com this year. It was a year of cyberattacks, lawsuits, and an exodus of high-ranking Dallas housing employees. We also saw the advent of noteworthy projects and the emergence of many local rising stars. Reporters at CandysDirt.com continued to ask…
The Austin City Council took a bold leap last week, agreeing to allow builders to develop up to three housing units on almost any lot in the city where single-family homes are allowed, thereby reducing the minimum lot size necessary for dwellings. Dallas housing advocates, elected officials, and Not In My Backyard homeowners were watching, and…
Dallas City Council members last month reviewed a pair of development programs used to spur affordable mixed-income housing throughout the city in the hopes that City Council will authorize changes to make the initiatives more developer-friendly. The programs are complicated and the funds are restricted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines.…
Housing-related state legislative priorities for the 2025 session include protecting rental subsidies from landlord discrimination, tenant protection from “junk fees,” and funding for emergency homeless shelters. Director of Government Affairs Carrie Rogers reviewed state and federal legislative priorities during a Nov. 14 meeting of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee. Rogers pointed out…
