Dallas Housing Proposal Aims for Equity, Finally

At Next City, Jared Brey reports that early next month the Dallas City Council will vote on a plan to build 20,000 below-market-rate units, most aggressively in areas of the city where housing costs are relatively high.

“The plan is intended not only to overcome a shortage of affordable housing in the city,” Brey writes, “but to chip away at patterns of racial and economic segregation that have developed in the city over the course of decades.”

Lots of apartments are being built in and around Dallas at the moment, but the city has long struggled with segregation and equity in both housing and transit; Brey explains that several years ago it faced two major legal challenges related to the Fair Housing Act.

This plan is basically a direct response:

“It calls for a mix of public and private investment to help fund 20,000 new homes over the next three years, with slightly more than half of the homes reserved for homeownership and the rest for rental. New affordable housing production would be focused in areas with stronger markets, through zoning for increased density and loans to fill financing gaps.”