Affordable and Available? : Challenges & Solutions : DRC Community Solutions to End Homelessness

The ability to secure a home anywhere boils down to math: Are available units affordable to you? When what is available is out of reach for most people, homelessness rises.

Current Wage Distribution

As of 2023, wages in Tarrant County were spread as follows:

DFW Housing Gap

The DFW area does not have enough housing units for people in the Extremely Low Income range.

We need nearly 200,000 units just to catch up with the Extremely Low Income households. This does not take into account the number of units required for the Very Low, Low, and Middle income households.

	DFW	Texas
EXTREMELY LOW INCOME HOUSEHOLDS AND AVAILABLE RENTALS
Extremely Low Income (ELI) Renter Households	216,751	904,814
Affordable and Available Rental Units per 100 ELI Households	16	25
DEFICIT OF AFFORDABLE AND AVAILABLE RENTAL UNITS
At or Below Extremely Low Income	-182,184	-674,648

Required Income in Fort Worth for Average Rent

Unit Size	Average Rent	Hourly (FT)	Monthly	Yearly
Studio	$1,254	$23.51	$3,762	$45,144
One Bedroom	$1,270	$23.81	$3,810	$45,720
Two Bedroom	$1,859	$34.86	$5,577	$66,924
Single Family Home	$2,301	$43.14	$6,903	$82,836

Most apartment management companies or landlords require income of 3x rent for approval; some require 4x. Rate shown is for 3x.

Income is for one person working 40 hours/week.

Looming Issues

Scarcity of building materials
Scarcity of labor
Zoning restrictions
Land costs
Higher property taxes passed along from landlord to tenants
Low vacancy rates/High occupancy rates
People unable to purchase a home and continue renting, halting the usual flow of renting to ownership
Landlords recouping lost income from eviction moratoriums
People moving to North Texas driving up demand
Many rental units converted into short-term-stays (i.e. AirBNB)

Assistance Gap

At this time, the Texas Rent Relief program has committed all available funds and is now closed.
- During the recent re-opening of the application portal on March 14, 2023, requests for assistance far exceeded available funding within the first 24 hours.
- During the week of March 26, 2023, applicants who will not be assisted were notified that TRR would not be able to fund their requests given the program has already committed all available funds. Unfortunately, this decision cannot be appealed.
Tarrant County Housing Assistance Office opened their wait list on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, and acquired over 14,900 applications.
- The wait list is currently closed.
- TCHAO anticipates that the wait list will be closed for the next eight years, possibly longer.
- The Wait List for the Mainstream Voucher Program in now closed.
Fort Worth Housing Solutions manages a limited number of Housing Choice Vouchers each year based on its federal allocation and budget.
- The agency maintains a program Wait List through a lottery system and assigns vouchers as they become available.
- FWHS is currently processing vouchers for the last individuals selected for a 2017 Wait List.
- FWHS is not currently accepting new HCV applications.

Location

Affordable and Available?

Available and Affordable?