Affordable housing is one of North Texas' most pressing issues, but the top program to help poor Dallas families make rent is failing.
Thousands of Dallas families rely on Section 8 housing vouchers to pay rent. The program uses federal dollars to help low-income families rent apartments or houses from private landlords. The family pays 30 percent of its income toward rent and utilities; the government covers the rest.
But this program only works if landlords accept vouchers, and these days many do not. In North Texas, entire communities are off limits to these poor renters because apartment complexes there don't participate in the program, according to a survey by The Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas nonprofit.
The survey was conducted by phone between 2015 and 2017 and reached nearly 2,000 private apartment complexes in the North Texas area. The nonprofit found that 88 percent of those apartment complexes did not accept housing vouchers.
Explore our interactive, searchable map of cities and apartment complexes here:
In 26 cities, none of the landlords surveyed took vouchers. That means low-income families with vouchers who want to be in that city for the schools, jobs or community support are effectively barred from living there.
Some of the cities are small, with only one or two landlords surveyed. Others are big and have dozens of apartment complexes.
Here is a list of the 26 cities, with population estimates in parentheses:
Addison (15,000)
Allen (93,000)
Balch Springs (25,000)
Corinth (20,000)
Decatur (6,000)
Fairview (8,000)
Flower Mound (69,000)
Frisco (138,000)
Highland Park (9,000)
Highland Village (16,000)
Keller (43,000)
Krum (5,000)
Lake Dallas (7,000)
Mansfield (62,000)
Northlake (3,000)
Prosper (14,000)
Red Oak (11,000)
Rowlett (58,000)
Sachse (23,000)
Sanger (7,000)
Seagoville (16,000)
Southlake (28,000)
The Colony (40,000)
Trophy Club (10,000)
Wilmer (4,000)
Wylie (44,000)
