{"id":506860,"date":"2026-01-10T19:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506860\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:51:11","slug":"affordable-housing-incentives-are-changing-dallas-must-change-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506860\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable housing incentives are changing. Dallas must change with them"},"content":{"rendered":"

The affordable housing ecosystem is changing. We are seeing the reprioritization of federal funds, transformative state policy that affects zoning and new players at the local philanthropic level. All of these actors, in some manner, influence the housing market, from those experiencing homelessness to those looking to purchase their first home. <\/p>\n

Historically, affordable housing has been seen as an issue solely impacting those in poverty. Yet, according to the state comptroller<\/a>, 34% of Texas households are cost-burdened, meaning that they spend at least 30% of their income on housing. This issue isn\u2019t about rich versus poor or red versus blue. It has implications for the Texas economy we all participate in.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a push for banning large institutional investors<\/a> from buying single-family homes, which could address immediate affordability concerns nationally. The administration has also made permanent the Opportunity Zone program, incentivizing investment capital in underserved areas, while also dismantling and defunding the Housing First model structured to support people experiencing homelessness. These latter two policy shifts move us away from government-funded, people-centered housing models to privatized, investor-centric strategies. This simply pushes responsibilities to the local level to meet immediate needs. <\/p>\n

While federal policy has a deep impact on housing, nothing has impacted housing more in recent years in Texas than in this past legislative session. We saw unprecedented policy changes in zoning reform (Senate Bill 840 and Senate Bill 15) and to help fast-track impactful developments (House Bill 24). These reforms can be seen as laying a foundation for a housing boom, which is arguably needed to increase supply. The question always becomes what type of supply is realistic for rapidly changing urban and suburban communities. <\/p>\n

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At the same time, we are seeing local governments enforce barriers to housing affordability. The Texas Tribune reported<\/a> on Arlington\u2019s requirements to increase residential amenities; Irving\u2019s intensified building standards; and Frisco\u2019s change of the zoning code, all attempts to sidestep state policy changes. <\/p>\n

Recently, we\u2019ve seen a resurgence of interest in housing from philanthropic groups. The Community Foundation of Texas, for instance, has announced a five-year, $100 million commitment to invest in neighborhoods and housing. Yes, funding is necessary for this work, and the true catalyst comes from broadening the conversation to new audiences. <\/p>\n

So where does this leave us? <\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s read the room \u2014 we are in a moment that is both catalytic and uneasy. And also, these changes will require developers like me to adapt quickly and strategically. If we do, Dallas could be a model for addressing this persistent housing shortage. <\/p>\n

Maggie Parker is founder and managing partner of Innovan Neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The affordable housing ecosystem is changing. We are seeing the reprioritization of federal funds, transformative state policy that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":506861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[852,5229,11890,1596,2556,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-506860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-commentary","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-development","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}