DALLAS — Lucy Cain is watching her 1920s-era South Dallas neighborhood change. Specifically, just across the street from her Spring Avenue home, she says she's watching it change for the better.
"We're gonna have to do something to have affordable housing," she said as she watched a row of new townhomes under construction just down the street. "And I also think it's going to bring an awareness to people that things are changing."
Change is also under sometimes heated discussion at Dallas City Hall, where these numbers are at play. The median price of a house in Dallas is up nearly 40% in just the last four years. The median price of a home in 2019 in the city of Dallas was $291,250 according to Redfin. At the end of 2023, that median price rose to $407,000. Good news if you're a homeowner or investor. But if you're living on a median household income of $58,200, a City of Dallas survey suggests there is now a 33,000 home shortage in an affordable price range.
"If we do nothing and we keep doing just what we're doing as a city, we're going to be looking at a shortage of upwards 80,000 by 2030," said Dallas City Councilman Chad West in a recent interview with WFAA.
West supports a proposal to allow more triplex and quadplex units in neighborhoods that right now allow only single-family homes.
"I want to have a city when my kids grow up, where they can afford to live in the city. At the end of the day, it's a discussion and it's part of us kind of growing up as a city and deciding what we want to be in the future," West said.
The public comment period at a Dallas City Council meeting Wednesday fielded strong support, and opposition, to plans proposed in the Forward Dallas draft plan.
"If we choose not to significantly invest in housing, we're only digging ourselves into a deeper hole and putting our residents in more dire straits," said Bryan Tony with the Dallas Housing Coalition.
Others expressed opposition, citing the impact on property values and property expectations that make people choose specific neighborhoods in the first place.
"Everyone in this fight I know agrees that housing solutions need to be developed," said Dallas resident Ed Zahra. "But losing single-family zoning because of the buy-right fever going around in city hall is not right."
As for that new construction on Spring Avenue in South Dallas, Lucy Cain would welcome more.
"If you are in the age range where you grew up like I did, where there were single-family homes and everything was almost perfect, that day is over," Cain said.
City leaders are now debating where and how much of that vision will become a reality.
The housing debate, and how to create more affordable housing in Dallas, was the subject of a recent Y'all-itics podcast you can watch here.