Fort Worth Presents Plan to Address Housing Affordability

On August 16, Fort Worth’s Neighborhood Services presented a 5-year plan to improve neighborhoods and address affordability to the City Council at the first public budget meeting. The city council will take up the proposals and debate costs in the coming weeks.

The Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Housing Affordability Strategy provide a coordinated road map to tackle both neighborhood conditions and the city’s affordable housing crisis. The Neighborhood Conservation Plan focuses on ensuring that all neighborhoods meet basic standards of livability, safety, and opportunity. The Housing Affordability Strategy seeks to ensure that Fort Worth has enough housing for both wealthy and lower-income residents to continue to live in Fort Worth without an overwhelming burden on their own resources — or the City’s.

FORT WORTH HOUSING AFFORDABILITY STRATEGY

Housing Affordability Strategy is about making sure Fort Worth’s working and low-income residents can find and remain in a safe place to live. This framework focuses on attacking the cost of building and preserving housing, attacking the cost of occupying a home, and intervening and managing housing crises to reduce homelessness.

Housing Affordability Strategies

* High priority strategies

1. Establish a Land Bank*
2. Transfer City-Owned Vacant Parcels to the HFC
3. Form and Open Space Program Partnership
4. Encourage Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
5. Adopt a Neighborhood Pattern Book of Pre-Approved Designs
6. Expand Mixed Use Zoning
7. Expand HFC tools*
8. Provide Additional City Investment*
9. Offer Development Bonuses for Affordable Housing Development
10. Encourage New Private and Philanthropic Funding Entities*
11. Support the Growth of Community Development Corporations*
12. Property Tax Assistance for Low-Income Homeowners
13. Expand NEZ Initiatives
14. Expand City Rehabilitation Program Funding and Improvements
15. Create Community Land Trusts (CLTs)*
16. Provide Additional Rental Subsidies
17. Follow Through with Code Enforcement at Rental Properties
18. Provide Proactive Support to Homeowners at Risk of Losing their Home
19. Expand the Tarrant County Eviction Dispersion Program for Fort Worth Residents
20. Expand Emergency Repair Program
21. Acquire Properties at Risk of Foreclosure or Tax Lien
22. Acquire FHA Loan Default Properties
23. Expand Permanent Supportive Housing
24. Implement a “Functional Zero” Approach for Key Populations

NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERVATION PLAN

The goal is to achieve vitality in all Fort Worth neighborhoods with strategies that improve livability, safety, and opportunity, while reducing the possibility of displacement. This plan includes multiple tools to help the City tailor its approach to different types of neighborhoods.

The Neighborhood Strategy Measure can help to determine what range of actions may be

best suited to different neighborhoods based on their existing conditions. This measures identifies three categories of neighborhoods; 1) Distressed and Challenged Neighborhoods, 2) In Flux and Steady Neighborhoods and, 3) Stable and Thriving Neighborhoods.

The Neighborhood Checklist identifies and refines the community development or neighborhood conservation actions that are most needed in each neighborhood based upon previous investments and current conditions.

The Citywide Conservation Strategies are ideas and initiatives that can be applied across the City to improve many neighborhoods.

• Grow Community Development Corporations (CDCs)
• Train Resident Leaders to Make Change
• Create Community Resource Guides to Help Neighbors Work Smarter
• Produce Annual Report Cards for Data Tracking, Evaluation and Transparency.
• Co-locate Departments and Services in Community Centers
• Use the Neighborhood Improvement Program (NIP) to Build Local Capacity in Disadvantaged Communities
• Specialize Fort Worth’s Code Enforcement Approach by Neighborhood Type
• Maintain a List of Key Vacant Properties to Seal, Demolish, or Acquire Across the City
• Reduce Trash and Litter with Street Cleaning and Bulk Trash Pickup Strategies
• Continue Focused Crime Interventions in High Need Neighborhoods
• Utilize the “Neighborhood Strategy Measure” and “Neighborhood Strategy Checklist” to Specialize the City’s Approach to Different Communities
• Designate Neighborhood Strategy Revitalization Areas (NRSAs)
• Pursue Citywide Parks Initiative to Ensure All Residents have Access to High Quality Public Spaces
• Issue a “Southeast Fort Worth Challenge” to Development a Plan for the Future
• Focus Development at Strategic Hubs in Challenged Neighborhoods
• Devote Infrastructure Dollars to Under-Invested Communities
• Ensure Greening Strategies Benefit Low Income Communities