City council members could make history Wednesday with a vote on the city’s first comprehensive housing policy since segregation and redlining.
Almost a quarter of a million people in Dallas are living in poverty. According to Mayor Mike Rawlings' “Poverty Taskforce,” one of the drivers of poverty is the lack of affordable housing.
Racial discrimination helped to enforce segregation and disparaging wealth patterns within the city of Dallas. Years after the Texas Fair Housing Act was passed, the city of Dallas may finally receive it’s first housing policy that could help balance housing disparities within the city.
The goals behind the 130-page policy include: create and maintain affordable housing, overcome patterns of segregation and the concentration of poverty through development incentives.
The policy is a jump start, but to many residents the proposal misses the mark.
“If the city doesn't do something about the housing for the lowest income people, and provide safe, clean, housing for the lowest income, there are going to be even more people on the streets,” said Dinah Dewberry who is living in assisted housing in northeast Dallas.
"Is it their responsibility to help everyone in Dallas? No. But it is their responsibility to help more than what’s being helped," Dewberry said. "Right now the policy doesn't include enough housing for low-income residents in Dallas."
Other community leaders are hoping the city will also develop a section 8 voucher discrimination ordinance to hold landlords and developers accountable.
City council members will meet and vote at 9 a.m.
