Emaan Majed, one of the rally organizers, said the Dallas City Council is deciding this year how to allocate money in the 2024 bond package. “They made a decision in November to cut funding that they were planning to give to affordable housing,” Majed said. “Instead, they’re giving huge amounts of funding to parks, the police academy and different things. I’m not saying those things aren’t important, but the most fundamental need that citizens have is to actually have a home, and that needs to be reflected in the city’s funding priorities.”
In November, the community bond task force proposed spending just $25 million of the bond proceeds on housing. Advocates with a group called the Dallas Housing Coalition have been pressing for an amount closer to $200 million. In December, the bond task force dropped the housing allocation down to $15 million. The latest recommendation from city staff, not the bond task force, is to spend closer to $60 million on housing.
During a special meeting Friday, Dallas City Council considered increasing the overall bond and discussed how much should be spent on building homes. Through a non-binding straw vote, the council decided to increase the overall bond package from $1.1 billion to $1.25 billion, but members did not settle on specific allocations for the bond money.
Dallas City Council member Chad West said at the meeting Friday that he’s heard concerns about the housing allocation because there aren’t specific housing projects in the pipeline for the money to be spent on. Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson, interim director of housing and neighborhood revitalization, explained that there’s no pipeline of projects because that’s not how development works.“That is not a way to live and there is no way you can save for housing." – Alan Lu, Sunrise Movement Dallas
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“Our developers have to know money is available before they can shop around for financing, for their subcontractors, for all the things that they need for development deals,” Rogers-Ellickson said. “It’s not possible for them to say ‘OK, I have this project that I don’t need to start for three years and, city, can you put that in your pipeline and I’ll wait for you to get money.’”
Council member Omar Narvaez said he supported housing dollars in the bond and recommended using housing bond money to help fund projects through Dallas’ Housing Finance Corp., which offers support for the acquisition, construction and rehabilitation of multifamily housing. “We really would not be doing the right thing if we don’t put money toward housing,” Narvaez said at the meeting. “At the end of the day, if we can get workforce housing and more of it here in the city of Dallas, then our residents will be able to one, stay and or move in and maybe renters like me would actually have an opportunity to purchase a home and really set roots here in the city of Dallas.”
But, as reported by the real estate news site Candy’s Dirt, council member Cara Mendelsohn isn’t so sure putting all this bond money toward housing is a good idea. To her, there are enough mechanisms in the city to build affordable housing, so it shouldn’t have to be addressed through the bond. “There are lots of ways to create housing without taking out additional debt,” Mendelsohn said at the meeting.
The day before the rally at the mayor’s house, the group dropped off petitions at the homes of all City Council members to advocate for more housing funds. Majed said many City Council members have expressed the need for more affordable housing in the city. “They’ve all said that, but they need to actually put the money, the people’s tax money, behind those statements,” Majed said. “We feel the mayor has a huge role in pushing green affordable homes forward for the city if he actually does care about making Dallas a better place.”
Majed described green affordable housing as sustainable development that doesn’t contribute to climate change.
Majed said she lives in a beautiful home in Coppell, but not everyone is so fortunate to have such a home. “That’s not enough if everyone doesn’t have access to it,” Majed said. “It’s not enough to just have it for yourself.” Majed said she’d like to live in Dallas if it were more affordable, and that the group has spoken to people who grew up in the city who are now being priced out of it.
One rally attendee named Alan Lu was a server about 10 years ago, living on minimum wage and tips. “It was very, very difficult to even make minimum wage,” Lu said. The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 an hour. “That is not a way to live, and there is no way you can save for housing,” Lu continued. “That was 10 years ago. Since then, the housing market has gotten even more ridiculous in Dallas. There are more people out on the streets. … There’s just no way of surviving out here in these conditions. I think housing should be a human right and people should be able to afford living under a roof.”
Another attendee, who identified himself as Jay, said people deserve a place to feel safe, warm and protected. “Housing for all is a climate issue. The city’s unwillingness to provide homes for its constituents is a problem that will lead to the death of more people,” he said, citing a number of heat-related injuries in North Texas.
“We are demanding affordable and sustainable housing for the people of Dallas because we want folks to live,” he said. “Mayor Eric Johnson and all City Council members owe its people the right to live.”
