Building And Resourcing Community Power To Promote Neighborhood Self-Determination And Community Stewardship Of Land And Business Development
Goal 3A: Create or Support and Expand Existing Neighborhood Community Capacity-Building Initiatives
i. Funding for Tenant and Community Organizing
Effective and sustained tenant and community organizing is essential to building the capacity of vulnerable residents to respond to changes in their housing and neighborhood conditions and to better advocate for their needs. Unfortunately, those who are most vulnerable to displacement are also those who face the greatest barriers to public participation. To level the playing field, we must provide accessible educational resources and tools to empower resident advocacy in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The City of Dallas and local philanthropic organizations can better support vulnerable residents in gentrifying neighborhoods by funding grassroots organizing efforts that provide accessible and culturally competent outreach, education, and training that empowers resident advocacy.
This ensures that vulnerable residents are equipped with the information and resources they need to avoid and minimize eviction and displacement and become active participants in, rather than victims of, neighborhood revitalization efforts.
*SPOTLIGHT ON* RAYO Planning
Formed in 2021, RAYO Planning is a Dallas-based nonprofit that educates and empowers residents in historically marginalized communities to fight for environmental, housing, and economic justice. Through community education, neighborhood planning, and direct advocacy, RAYO centers the lived experience of residents on the front lines of neighborhood injustices to promote policy solutions that are equitable, inclusive, and culturally sustaining. In 2023, RAYO launched its People Powered Planning Academy for Racial Justice (PPPA), a five-week course designed to empower grassroots leaders to participate fully in planning, land use, zoning, and public policy processes. The first two PPPA cohorts were focused on Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove, with many more Dallas neighborhoods yet to benefit from the program.
*SPOTLIGHT ON* Somos Tejas
Somos Tejas is a Dallas-based nonprofit dedicated to building power in Latino communities through increased civic engagement and neighborhood organizing. Somos Tejas’ unique civic engagement program looks beyond individual elections and candidates to focus on ongoing and pressing community-wide concerns. A key component of Somos Tejas’ model is supporting the growth and advocacy of neighborhood associations in underrepresented areas by providing essential resources such as start-up funding, organizational infrastructure coaching, and assistance with community outreach to help neighborhoods organize around pertinent issues affecting their communities. Somos Tejas played a central role in launching and growing several Oak Cliff neighborhood associations and grassroots advocacy groups to increase community awareness and participation in the city-initiated West Oak Cliff Area Plan (WOCAP).
ii. Capacity-Building Support and Incubation of Neighborhood-Based CDCs
Community development corporations (CDCs) and other community-based organizations are uniquely positioned to facilitate anti-displacement neighborhood planning and provide housing options that meet locally identified community needs. By design, CDCs are accountable to the communities they serve because their boards of directors must include community representation. High-capacity CDCs can develop real estate projects for both residential and commercial uses to further their mission of serving low-income families and neighborhoods. CDCs can also operate other programs and services as needed to meet the specific needs of the communities they serve (e.g., home repairs, financial literacy counseling, small business loans, etc.). Unfortunately, there are far too few CDCs in Dallas, and those that exist have limited capacity to meet the housing needs of vulnerable residents in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The City and local philanthropy can support community development organizations in Dallas by establishing a Community Capacity-Building Fund and participating in funding collaboratives that support organizational capacity-building.
These initiatives could provide training, mentorship, technical assistance, and access to capital to fund affordable housing and other impactful community-serving projects. Programs like the Community Developers Roundtable, spotlighted below, are essential to growing CDC capacity and strengthening the CDC ecosystem in Dallas.
The Community Developers Roundtable (CDR), an initiative of Innovan Neighborhoods and BCL of Texas, was launched in 2022 with the goal of growing the impact of diverse, community-oriented real estate developers in Dallas in order to increase the production of affordable housing and neighborhood amenities in historically disinvested communities. In its first year, the program supported a cohort of 15 diverse developers – including three CDCs – over nine months. These developers benefited from monthly training sessions, 1:1 professional coaching services and financial consultations, stipends for staff development, and access to a dedicated predevelopment fund providing low-interest, partially forgivable debt for hard-to-capitalize stages of development.
*SPOTLIGHT ON* Community Developers Roundtable
Goal 3B: Incorporate Inclusive and Equitable Anti-Displacement Strategies in City Planning and Development Decisions
i. Citywide Comprehensive Community Engagement Strategy
Ensuring the active participation of residents most at risk of displacement in decision-making processes that impact neighborhood change is essential to creating and preserving equitable and culturally sustainable communities. For far too long, these voices have been historically and systemically excluded from public participation. By empowering, uplifting, and centering community voices in development decisions impacting neighborhood change, we can mitigate displacement pressures for vulnerable residents and achieve more equitable outcomes for all.
A comprehensive, effective, and culturally competent community engagement strategy should include: 1) an understanding of the target community including its demographic make-up and accessibility needs; 2) the utilization of diverse and accessible forms of outreach and participation; 3) the timely provision of relevant information that is clear and easy to understand; 4) meaningful opportunities to provide community input; and 5) follow-up communications regarding how community input was incorporated into official decision-making processes. The strategy should also include clear and measurable goals for engagement outcomes and thoughtful consideration of who is and is not participating, adjusting outreach efforts as needed to achieve equitable representation.
To better support inclusivity and equity in municipal decision-making processes, the City of Dallas can develop and implement a comprehensive community engagement strategy to ensure that all impacted residents, including renters, are appropriately notified and engaged in neighborhood planning, zoning, and development projects. The City Council has recently taken steps toward this goal by approving policy language related to a comprehensive engagement strategy in ForwardDallas 2.0.
ii. Support for Neighborhood-Led Planning Efforts
Resident-led neighborhood plans are effective tools for building community power and realizing a historically marginalized community’s right to self-determination. Neighborhood-led plans are resident-led and initiated, as opposed to city-initiated, and are better equipped to respond to and act on community-identified goals and priorities. Neighborhood-led plans can also advance displacement-mitigation goals by setting and enforcing an inclusive and equitable vision for future community and economic development in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The City of Dallas had a clear and defined process for neighborhood-led planning efforts that was temporarily paused during the development and adoption of ForwardDallas 2.0, leaving several neighborhoods in jeopardy without a path forward to plan adoption. In response to strong community advocacy and led primarily by the Coalition for Neighborhood Self-Determination (mentioned in the spotlight below), the City reintroduced a draft Neighborhood Planning Process, which has yet to be made official.
The City of Dallas can better support neighborhood-led planning efforts in gentrifying communities by officially restoring the path to policy for neighborhood-led plans and by prioritizing city support for neighborhood-led planning efforts in actively gentrifying and vulnerable communities.
*SPOTLIGHT ON* The Neighborhood Self-Defense Project
The Neighborhood Self-Defense Project (NSDP), an initiative of local environmental advocacy group Downwinders at Risk, assists neighborhood organizations in the creation, adoption, and implementation of grassroots land use plans that reflect the community’s vision for their neighborhood. Since 2020, the NSDP has crafted two neighborhood-led land use plans in partnership with grassroots groups and neighborhood associations in Floral Farms and the Singleton Corridor in West Dallas. The citywide Coalition for Neighborhood Self-Determination was established the following year to bolster the grassroots efforts of these neighborhoods in advocating for their respective plans and has been the primary champion for restoring the path to policy for neighborhood-led plans. The Coalition remains active in supporting the local efforts of its member organizations and fighting for environmental justice, fair and affordable housing, and neighborhood self-determination for all communities in Dallas.
iii. Community Impact Analyses for Proposed Projects
Community impact analyses require developers and public agencies to assess the potential impact a proposed development, zoning change, or public investment may have on a vulnerable community. Many cities, including Austin and San Antonio, have adopted impact analyses with various focuses including housing affordability, displacement, and racial equity. San Antonio’s pilot Displacement Impact Assessment (DIA) requires all new construction development projects seeking housing bond funding from the city to assess the project’s proposed displacement impact on vulnerable residents in “at-risk” census tracts.34 Community impact analyses help elected and appointed officials make more informed and equitable decisions when deciding whether or not to support a proposed project within a vulnerable neighborhood. They also afford community stakeholders an opportunity to better understand how a proposed project may impact them so they can effectively advocate for displacement mitigation measures in the public approval process. To increase awareness of and better respond to potentially harmful projects in vulnerable communities, the City of Dallas should adopt a policy requiring developers to conduct community impact analyses for all proposed developments, zoning changes, and public investments, etc., in gentrifying neighborhoods.
Our current housing affordability crisis is caused not just by a shortage of units but also by the hyper-commodification of housing, which treats it purely as an asset and investment and not as an essential good to be used. One approach to housing justice is the idea of “decommodification,” the decoupling of housing access from one’s ability to pay.35 Three ways to accomplish this are: 1) creating publicly owned, permanently affordable housing; 2) limiting speculation and profitmaking in the housing market; and 3) facilitating community and collective ownership of land.36 Some of these strategies are discussed below.
i. Shared Equity Housing Models
Shared equity housing is an affordable housing strategy that creates access to homeownership for families with modest incomes and ensures long-term affordability in the community. This is typically achieved through a Community Land Trust model (discussed more in Goal 3Cii below), in which ownership is shared between a homeowner and a community-based nonprofit organization or through an initial subsidy coupled with long-term affordability compliance periods, resale restrictions, and rights of first refusal to ensure that the subsidy is passed on from one family to the next in order to maintain permanent affordability of the unit. Shared equity housing models create a new pathway to stable homeownership for long-term renters and allow them to remain in their neighborhoods as housing costs rise. They also protect the initial public subsidy invested into each unit by creating permanent affordability that remains with the unit and is passed on to future vulnerable families.
In contrast to traditional models of public subsidy that work to “buy down” the sales price of a home for an individual buyer in exchange for limited affordability compliance periods, shared equity housing models create permanent affordable units, helping to stabilize both families and communities in the long term. The City of Austin currently offers both traditional down payment assistance and shared equity options for income-qualified, first-time homebuyers. The City of Dallas can better protect its investments in affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods and maximize its returns by incorporating and prioritizing shared equity housing models in all city programs.
ii. Community Ownership of Residential and Commercial Property
Increasing opportunities for community ownership of residential and commercial property is one of the most transformative ways of building community power in gentrifying neighborhoods. The City of Dallas can facilitate community ownership of residential and commercial real estate through tools like Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and Community Investment Trusts (CITs), discussed below.
A Community Land Trust (CLT) is an affordable housing model designed to produce permanently affordable, resale-restricted homeownership for low-income families. CLT organizations can counter gentrification by buying and holding land, permanently removing it from the speculative real estate market, and then conveying the use of that land via a 99-year, inheritable ground lease to income-eligible, qualified homeowners. In a CLT, ownership of the land and the home are separate; the land is owned by an organizational entity, while the home is owned by an individual or family. CLTs preserve affordability by factoring the cost of the land out of the price of the home, restricting the future resale value of the home, and reducing the homeowner’s property tax liability. Essential to the classic CLT model is its tripartite board, which includes CLT homeowners, community members, and public stakeholders. The CLT structure can be used for single-family homes, multifamily apartments, or mixed-use and commercial developments. Guaranteed community representation on the CLT board creates community transparency, accountability, and control.
A Community Investment Trust (CIT) is an innovative financial model that promotes community wealth building in historically marginalized neighborhoods by offering a long-term path to collective, communal ownership of real estate. Pioneered by Mercy Corps in East Portland, Oregon, the CIT model affords low-income and first-time investors an opportunity to invest in and benefit from community-serving real estate projects in their neighborhoods for as low as $10-$100 per month, promoting community stewardship of real estate and economic mobility for vulnerable residents and communities.
iii. Community Benefits Agreements
Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are powerful tools for mitigating the harms and displacement pressures of large-scale development projects in vulnerable communities. A CBA is a legally binding contract between a developer and an organized coalition of community groups regarding a specific development project wherein the developer agrees to provide site-specific benefits to the community in exchange for the community’s support of the project. Benefits can include affordable housing units, economic development, environmental remediation, and/or other community considerations. When structured and executed properly, CBAs can give impacted residents a meaningful voice in real estate development, mitigate harmful externalities including displacement pressures, bring much-needed amenities to underserved communities, and maximize returns on local government investment in development projects. Negotiated CBA benefits can be incorporated into development agreements between a developer and a city, allowing the city to assist communities with monitoring and enforcement. The City of Dallas can better support communities in their efforts to negotiate more equitable outcomes with developers by encouraging and supporting the use of neighborhood-led CBAs in vulnerable communities and conditioning project approval on the community’s support.
Goal 3C: Encourage and Facilitate Community Ownership and Stewardship of Land and Business Development