Federal housing programs are helpful to a degree, but the housing shortage is ultimately a supply-and-demand problem.
to advocate for his city. Last week, however, he made an important argument before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.at a hearing titled “Housing Roadblocks: Paving a New Way to Address Affordability.
” His message was straightforward: Federal housing programs are helpful to a degree, but the housing shortage is ultimately a supply-and-demand problem that only the private sector can tackle at scale.The more housing that gets built, the more that supply will drive housing costs down for everyone across the income spectrum. Johnson said the government’s role in the solution is to help remove obstacles to building that housing. He underscored Dallas City Hall’s efforts to speed up permitting.. But the mayor is right that the path to building more housing is to cut red tape, not to add even more federal housing programs.To be clear, Johnson didn’t call for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to be cut. On the contrary, he acknowledged that there is value in the federal housing dollars sent to Dallas and that they have generated some housing stock for low-income residents. But the mayor noted that these programs create a few thousand housing units a year when we need tens of thousands of units. HUD dollars have been critical to power the rehousing efforts of Housing Forward, the region’s lead homelessness response agency. Housing tax credits have also helped developers secure gap financing for mixed-income apartments. But it’s also true that Dallas City Hall has a questionable record with HUD money, having previouslyJohnson also spoke about addressing street homelessness as a public health issue. He said most chronically homeless people on the street are there because of serious mental illness, substance addiction and other behavioral problems. The latest homelessness census in Dallas and Collin counties found that a fifth of unsheltered people have a severe mental illness. National data from 2023 indicated 26.3% of people living on the street or in shelters have a severe mental illness. At any rate, too many homeless people are suffering without treatment. They are a danger to themselves and others.Johnson made an eloquent argument. Now he must guide efforts in his city to — in his words — change the narrative around homelessness. What would a public health approach to solving homelessness look like? The housing-first model is not an adequate strategy for the severely mentally ill. The mayor can lead in finding the right policies.Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper. The board considers a broad range of topics and is overseen by the Editorial Page Editor.
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