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<\/p>\nAs part of its strategic priority to build \u201ca thriving community,\u201d Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) has announced a new five-year, $50 million commitment to investing in neighborhoods and housing. The announcement was made Thursday before a large audience of city of Dallas, nonprofit, and foundation partner supporters\u2014amid hopes that future matching grants could create \u201ca $100 million Housing Impact Fund dedicated to lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of CFT\u2019s five-year strategic plan, we\u2019re taking on a new initiative to increase our investments in housing, in alignment with our focus on health, wealth, living, and learning,\u201d CFT Board Chair Connie Blass O\u2019Neill said in a statement. \u201cHousing is a central challenge impacting each of these focus areas, and if we can\u2019t address our local housing crisis, we can\u2019t effectively meet our community\u2019s needs.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill said CFT is aligning its efforts around expanding housing access with the city of Dallas and other key partners. \u201cWe know when we work together, we\u2019ll see better outcomes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
CFT President and CEO Wayne White discussing the Housing Impact Fund before a large audience last Thursday. [Photo: CFT]<\/p>\n
One of the reasons the prices of houses and apartments have outpaced incomes, CFT said, is because the North Texas region isn\u2019t producing enough housing to meet demand. As a result, the average home in DFW costs more than four times the median household income and the region loses thousands of affordable rental units each year, the organization noted.<\/p>\n
\u2018A troubling trend\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on a troubling trend. We didn\u2019t build fast enough to keep up with North Texas\u2019 rapid growth and the demand to live here,\u201d said Cullum Clark, director of the George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative. \u201cWe have a number of our residents living in, by modern standards, homes and units that aren\u2019t fit for human habitation, and in other cases just not nearly as good as we might hope for in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the announcement, Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said, \u201cWhen we talk about attracting investment, growing our workforce, improving public safety, and building stronger families\u2014it all comes back to this question: Can people afford to live in the city they serve, the city they love, and the city they call home?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, too many Dallas residents are being priced out or pushed out\u2014locked out of ownership, stability, and opportunity,\u201d Tolbert added. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a housing crisis. It\u2019s an economic, health, and opportunity challenge. That\u2019s why housing affordability and production are top priorities for the city of Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadine Dechausay, chief strategy and insights officer at CFT, is spearheading CFT\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities thrive when residents at every income level have secure housing, a strong education, a voice in their community, a sense of safety, and access to resources that improve their health and wellbeing,\u201d Dechausay said in a statement. \u201cThis is our North Star for building and growing sustainable communities. We have organizations and initiatives working across multiple different segments of housing. What has been asked of CFT is to address the issue of fragmentation, to take the lead in coordinating and aligning efforts, building a bigger platform for community-driven impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Among the attendees at CFT\u2019s Housing Impact Fund announcement were, foreground left to right, Councilmember Paul Ridley, Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis, Dallas City Manager Kim Bizor Tolbert, and DPD Chief Daniel C. Comeaux. [Photo: CFT]<\/p>\n
\u2018Room to be bold\u2019<\/p>\n
Wayne White, president and CEO at Communities Foundation of Texas, called the foundation\u2019s commitment extraordinary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognize that as the largest community foundation in Texas with a nearly 75-year history in North Texas, we have room to be bold,\u201d White said. \u201cOur board of trustees have committed an extraordinary $50 million of CFT funds over the next five years to help address our city\u2019s housing challenges. We believe, with the partnership of other foundations, fundholders, corporations, banks, policymakers, and community leaders, that we will match that investment, creating a $100 million Housing Impact Fund dedicated to lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n
White emphasized the importance of strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur role as a community foundation will be threefold: to collaborate, to convene, and to co-invest,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough \u2018patient capital,\u2019 we aim to strengthen the housing ecosystem\u2014advancing policy, production, and preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n
CFT said its initial housing strategy centers around three pillars: partnership and policy, production, and preservation. The foundation said this combination of strategies has proven effective in other cities.<\/p>\n
\u2018Partnerships and policy\u2019 pillar<\/p>\n
The \u201cpartnerships and policy\u201d pillar centers around convening the public-private sector to collaborate and improve systems. CFT said one of the first elements has been establishing HouseDTX, a new network of funders, advocates, planners, and community leaders that will elevate housing ecosystem work throughout the city. HouseDTX will work to advance housing policy and practices, and the alliance intends to release a housing scorecard next year that will track progress towards filling housing gaps and stabilizing housing stock.<\/p>\n
HouseDTX is led by Dechausay, Clark, Ashley Brundage of Habitat for Humanity, Ashley Fores of Child Poverty Action Lab, Bryan Tony of the Dallas Housing Coalition, and Ruben Landa, Brian Keith, and Shane Phillips of the Greater Dallas Planning Council.<\/p>\n
\u2018Preservation pillar\u2019<\/p>\n
CFT said the \u201cpreservation\u201d pillar centers around ensuring that existing housing units can remain affordable, safe, and well-maintained. It said one of the first elements has been partnering with The Real Estate Council (TREC) and JP Morgan Chase to establish the Dallas Community Land Trust. It said a community land trust model has been helpful in many other regions, including in other areas in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Community Land Trust is a new form of ownership that allows access to more people. It opens that door and unlocks the dream of home ownership for more families,\u201d Stephanie Champion, board chair of the Dallas Community Land Trust, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
CFT said that Frazier Revitalization recently contributed the first two homes to the Dallas Community Land Trust.<\/p>\n
\u2018Production pillar\u2019<\/p>\n
The \u201cproduction\u201d pillar centers around increasing the supply of homes that are accessible to more people.<\/p>\n
The foundation said that includes partnerships with mission-aligned community developers and builders, incubating innovative construction methods, and providing access to low-cost capital through new loan funds, including the use of program-related investments or \u201cPRIs.\u201d<\/p>\n
PRIs serve as recyclable philanthropic capital, expected to be paid back by a certain time, usually at a below-market interest rate, the foundation said.<\/p>\n
Funding organizations and initiatives<\/p>\n
CFT said its Housing Impact Fund was created to deliver low-cost, recyclable capital to the local housing sector, enabling developers to build more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fund allows us to have an immediate impact on housing production, while learning alongside others. It allows us to work with and co-fund alongside partners who\u2019ve already been making housing-related investments such as the Muse Foundation, Meadows Foundation, and Rees-Jones Foundation,\u201d Dechausay said.<\/p>\n
In the past several months, CFT has granted more than $4 million in aligned grant funding:<\/p>\n
Community Investments:<\/p>\n
Dallas Economic Development Corp.: $1.5 million grant for operating support over three years
\nDowntown Dallas Inc.: $1.5 million over two years for implementation of the Safe in the City initiative<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nPartnerships & Policy:<\/p>\n
Greater Dallas Planning Council: $50,000 grant to build consensus-based housing recommendations
\nDallas Housing Coalition: $25,000 grant for operating support<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nProduction:<\/p>\n
Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund \u2013 $500,000 grant to Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for a recyclable capital grant that will produce units of rental housing. In response to the DFW\u2019s severe housing shortage, LISC, one of the nation\u2019s largest Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI), was invited to come to Dallas to provide access to capital to build affordable homes and has been partnering with The Real Estate Council (TREC) since 2021. Through this partnership, 249 units have been created and are occupied, and another 424 units have received financing. The fund managers expect to have a total of 2,944 units constructed in the city of Dallas by 2028.
\nbuildingcommunitiesWORKSHOP [bc] \u2013 $250,000 grant to support the DreamBUILD housing system startup, which utilizes modular construction to reduce costs and build homes faster and more efficiently.
\nTexas Education Opportunity Fund (TEOF) \u2013 $200,000 program-related investment (PRI) loan to the LoMaX to help build units of housing using innovative shipping container construction methods on S. Malcolm X Boulevard across from The Stewpot. LoMaX, a 21-unit residential project currently under construction, is the first of its kind in Texas to re-purpose shipping containers using off-site fabrication combined with conventional financing and social impact investment.
\nAdditionally, CFT has created a $5 million PRI loan and grant fund led by CFT\u2019s Housing Strategy committee that will allow for early investments while CFT is fundraising for the much larger investment fund it has created.<\/p>\n
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Preservation:<\/p>\n
Dallas Community Land Trust \u2013 $10,000 grant to enable Frazier Revitalization to contribute the first two homes to the Trust.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to support development that leads to economic mobility and shared prosperity. We understand that it will take more than five years to achieve our goals. This is the beginning of a long-term effort to address a challenge that impacts our neighbors, our future economic growth, and our city as a whole,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
CFT said it professionally manages more than 1,300 charitable funds and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.<\/p>\n
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