The Dallas Housing Coalition has been courting support for a series of bond packages that could pour millions of dollars into housing infrastructure and affordable home development to address the North Texas housing crisis.
The advocacy group of 160 non- and for-profit housing developers, policy experts, businesses and neighborhood associations says it has two wars to win.
The first is raising public funds. The coalition was among local advocates calling for $200 million to be dedicated to affordable housing in an upcoming $1.1 billion city bond proposal. But the latest recommendation suggests only $25 million.
The Dallas City Council still has to weigh in on the overall plan before the $1.1 billion bond package goes to voters next year for approval.
The second war — and the hardest, they say — is a long hearts and minds battle against NIMBYism, a powerful sentiment in which neighborhood opposition — “not in my backyard” — often kills the development of affordable housing.
Local advocates say Dallas residents need to do their homework on the harmful myths and important truths they need to be aware of to help ease the housing affordability crisis and open up development opportunities across the city for residents of all income levels.
“When people display NIMBYism, either unintentionally or when they think they’re advocating what is best for themselves in their community, they don’t necessarily make the connection to the greater housing crisis that we’re facing and the more societal barriers Dallas has to meet our housing needs,” said Bryan Tony, a key organizer of the Dallas Housing Coalition.
Neighbors who speak out to oppose affordable housing development often cite the same negative impacts on their livelihood: They fear their property values will drop while crime, traffic and trash will soar.
Tony said these myths are not supported by research or the experiences of neighborhoods that have opened their arms to lower-income families.
Based on current incomes and housing costs, firefighters, teachers and other public service workers could qualify to live in many housing developments that have been historically opposed by neighborhood opposition groups.
Without some intervention, workers with higher incomes will soon find their own housing supply decreases as well, Tony said.
“These are people who are college graduates getting their first jobs who can no longer afford to not be housing cost-burdened by how high rents are,” Tony said. “Or in my situation, I’ve always had at least two roommates that I’ve lived with, and that’s not necessarily something that everybody had to do before. We don’t have enough diverse housing stocks to allow people other options.”
North-south divide
Not all communities have NIMBY attitudes that look alike either, said Ashley Brundage, a coalition member and executive director of housing stability and senior vice president of community impact at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.
“NIMBYism shows up in very different ways depending on the community that you’re in,” she said.
In suburban communities or some northern Dallas neighborhoods, it can look like homeowners protesting the building of apartments nearby.
But in southern Dallas, it’s often a community rallying against the concentration of low-income properties in predominantly Hispanic and Black neighborhoods, Brundage said.
Ann Lott, executive director of the Inclusive Communities Project, said only about 2% of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties in Dallas are in predominantly white communities, with the other 98% in communities of color.
Lott said that Dallas must do more to address the historic harm caused by racist policies for the health of communities of color, who’ve been denied the same opportunities as higher-income, mostly white neighborhoods.
“There’s research out there that suggests that when you place a low-income child of color in a community where there’s a wealth of amenities and where they have access to great schools and can get a great education, we can break the cycle of generational poverty in that child’s life,” Lott said.
Neighborhood association weighs in
Retired IT executive Greg Estell, 65, says his chief goal is making his single-family-home-dominated Old Lake Highlands neighborhood more attractive to young families, which means finding ways to make housing more affordable in the surrounding area.
The vice president of the Old Lake Highlands neighborhood association says he considers himself at times both a NIMBY and a YIMBY depending on the issue.
For example, the Oak Lake Highlands neighborhood association opposed short-term rentals and backed the city’s decision to enact stronger regulations.
But Estell says he personally supports a homeowner following proper city codes for adding an accessory dwelling unit on their property.
“My dream would be that as I age, I’d be able to do so in the comfort of my own home,” Estell said. “And for me personally, I would like to be able to have an accessory dwelling unit for someone who later in life, either a part-time or maybe a full-time basis, could reside and allow my wife and I to safely age in place. I think that’d be a beautiful thing.”
What he doesn’t support is what’s called by-right development, wherein projects like adding an accessory dwelling unit, or even a duplex or triplex to a single-family neighborhood wouldn’t require a special review and approval.
Development by right
Dallas City Council member Chad West sent a memo to fellow council members this month with signatures from four other colleagues asking them to weigh in on by-right development, along with other measures like reducing minimum lot sizes and parking requirements.
He said that although some might initially oppose a policy change like this, it could immediately double or triple housing stock in a city whose traditional single-family zoning often delays or blocks more affordable options.
“I think the fear of the NIMBYs is this particular legislation is going to result in a drastic demolition of single-family neighborhoods and construction of brand new three- and four- plexes that just destroy the fabric of their neighborhoods,” West said.
The truth is much less severe, West said, as the policy would likely be used to add density by right in the form of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in single-family zoned areas to infill and vacant properties where no housing exists.
“There’s a way to do it and allow for this gentle density that’s contextual,” West said, citing his neighbors’ engagement and open arms for more affordable development options. “It’s not intrusive on the neighborhood, and the neighbors embrace it.”
