Vulnerable Populations

The first part of our analysis looks at which neighborhoods in Dallas have high concentrations of residents who are vulnerable to displacement in the face of rising housing costs. Following the Austin study, we utilized a set of five key indicators to identify groups of residents who, according to social science research, are least able to absorb rising housing costs and who have limited options following displacement. These groups are: low-income households, people of color, heads of households without a bachelor’s degree or higher, renters, and families with children living in poverty. 

These indicators were measured in the following way:

• Percentage of households under 80% of Area Median Income (AMI)

• Percentage of the population that is not non-Hispanic white

• Percentage of households headed by someone without a bachelor’s degree or higher

• Percentage of households that are renting

• Percentage of families with children in poverty

Per our methodology, a neighborhood is considered vulnerable to residential displacement if it scores highly across the five demographic indicators. Each neighborhood was compared to all other neighborhoods by calculating a z-score for each variable. A z-score measures a data point’s relative position in a distribution. A tract was considered vulnerable to displacement if at least three of the five variables had a z-score above 0.5. The average of all five z-scores was also used to illustrate relative vulnerability in the Vulnerability Map.