In 2022 the City of Dallas, Texas asked John Gilvar, Christine Campbell, and Michele Williams to help it develop a radically new affordable housing policy framework. The City wanted the new policy to acknowledge that increasing racial equity is integral to improving affordability for the entire community. The resulting new framework, known as Dallas Housing Policy 2033, was adopted by the Dallas City Council on April 12, 2023.
John, Christine, and Michele created a joint venture, Community Equity Strategies, to take on this challenge. In keeping with our shared belief that housing affordability is fundamentally about choice, we grounded our extensive community engagement and City Council discussions in a commitment to the following objective: ALL Dallas residents, regardless of race, will be able to choose to live in safe, quality housing in a neighborhood with access to high-paying jobs, freedom from airborne toxins, healthy food, health care, protection from flooding, street lighting, and proximity to family, friends, faith, culture, and other community connections tied to wellbeing.
Dallas Housing Policy 2033 builds on our 2021 racial equity assessment of Dallas’s old housing policy framework and our 11 recommendations for policy change that the City Council formally adopted in the Spring of 2022. The new policy centers 7 Pillars of Racial Equity and outlines a robust and authentic community engagement process that will be critical to the policy’s ultimate success in achieving our objective.
