Dallas is facing a shortage of about 33,660 affordable homes, according to a study published recently by the Child Poverty Action Lab.
Ashley Flores, senior director of the nonprofit CPAL, reviewed the findings Thursday night in a conference call with members of the activist group Dallas Neighbors for Housing.
Flores worked for about six months with economic development firm HR&A Advisors to better understand the Dallas rental market, particularly the gap between supply and demand at different income levels, she said.
“Most of the residents in Dallas are renters,” Flores said. “We also know that renters in Dallas are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately in communities of color. Homeownership, rehab, and preservation — all those areas of the housing ecosystem — are really critical, but the point of this report was to take a deep dive into the rental market.”
Problems and Solutions in The Dallas Rental Market
The July 20 online discussion focused on the problem.
The solution is going to be addressed, too, in an Aug. 24 panel discussion with City Plan Commission Chair Tony Shidid, Assistant Director of Planning and Urban Design Andreea Udrea, and Assistant Vice President of Venture Commercial Paul Carden.
Dallas Neighbors for Housing founder Adam Lamont said the panelists are positioned to actually do something about the housing shortage and rental distribution.
“It sort of segues from Ashley’s ‘where we are’ to what we can do now, action-wise,” Lamont said.
Housing advocates with the newly-formed Dallas Housing Coalition have said they plan to advocate for $200 million in the upcoming 2024 bond issue.
Elected officials have acknowledged the CPAL report.
“There is a delicate balance between protecting our existing housing supply and the need to build more,” District 1 Councilman Chad West said in response to the report. “However, Dallas needs to build more and soon. We need to look at encouraging [accessory dwelling units], missing middle housing, and incentivizing building on empty lots.”
Child Poverty Action Lab Report
In 2021 there were 70 affordable units for every 100 households at or below 50 percent Area Median Income, Flores read from the CPAL report.
“If supply were leading demand perfectly, there would be 100 affordable units for every 100 households — or even better, there would be more than 100 affordable units,” she said. “The idea is to have a lot of choices in the market.”
Four main factors have driven the rental housing gap in Dallas:
• Rapid regional growth: The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has grown by more than 20 percent over the past decade.
• Prevalence of low-wage jobs: The top four most common jobs by occupation in DFW all have median wages under $40,500.
• Insufficient production of new affordable units: Since 2010, Dallas has delivered only 1.9 new, deed-restricted affordable units per 1,000 residents, ranking 21st of 32 big cities in affordable unit production.
• Accelerated rent increases: Rent has increased more in the 34 months since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic than in the 72 months prior.
The rental housing gap is growing, Flores explained. By 2030, the City of Dallas is projected to have a gap of 83,500 rental units for households at or below 50 percent Area Median Income.
Additionally, the widening of the rental housing gap will be driven by a projected loss of almost 54,000 units of naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) for residents at or below 50 percent AMI.
Without intervention, the current trend will exacerbate existing inequalities across Dallas, hindering economic mobility for low-income children, Flores said.
“Dallas ranks 10th out of the 12 largest cities for affordable housing units in “high opportunity” census tracts and remains the most segregated big city in Texas — and among the most segregated big cities in the nation,” Flores said. “Lack of housing affordability forces families to make tradeoffs with basic daily needs like food, clothing, and transportation. On average, families at or below 50 percent AMI are spending nearly half their income on housing each month.”
Rental Units And Affordability
Dallas builders constructed about the same number of rental units from 2000 to 2009 as from 2010 to 2019, Flores said.
“We were producing units at a comparable clip, but we added many more residents from 2010 forward, so that really drove down affordability,” she said. “That helps explain why we’re in this pinch.”
The CPAL leader broke down data included in the report, including “staggering” statistics. About 74 percent of single-parent households with children are “cost-burdened,” spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent, she said.
“You see the difference in how populations are being affected by these steep housing costs,” she said.
It’s important, Flores said, to provide affordable units throughout Dallas.
Deed-restricted affordable units are overwhelmingly cited in the southern sector of the city, she explained.
“We haven’t done a great job of dispersing deed-restricted affordable housing so people can access neighborhoods across the city,” Flores said.
