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Dallas PFC & HFC
3/26/25 – 3/24/25 | Ad Valorem Report
Welcome to Ultraground. We send you data on attainable housing deals.
CC March 26, 2025 - DPFC March 25, 2025 - HHSC March 24, 2025
Citywide
PFC & HFC Bylaws Review | Sentiment Analysis
CC March 26, 2025
District: 14 | Deep Ellum
424-Unit Multifamily HFC | 2627 Live Oak St | Approved
District: 11 | Far North Dallas
322-Unit Multifamily PFC | 5339 Alpha Rd | Approved
HHSC March 24, 2025
District: 13 | North Dallas
399-Unit Multifamily PFC | 5585 LBJ Fwy | Briefing Discussion
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CITYWIDE
PFC & HFC Deals in Ultraground Dataset
State of the PFC & HFC
3/24/25 – 3/25/25 – 3/26/25
The City of Dallas is in the midst of a significant overhaul of how it regulates both the Dallas Public Facility Corporation (DPFC) and Dallas Housing Finance Corporation (DHFC).
Several sweeping changes have been proposed that would fundamentally alter how affordable housing deals get done in Dallas. Among the most consequential proposals:
Geographic restrictions that would limit DPFC projects to areas with poverty rates greater than 20%, focusing on R/ECAP and underdeveloped areas
AMI restrictions minimizing market-rate units to 10% overall in each project
Requiring Housing Department review of all projects before board approval
Adding the Housing Director as an ex-officio member of the boards
Limiting fund usage to "development opportunities only as defined by Housing Director"
The Oak & Ellum project discussed at recent meetings illustrates the tensions at play. This 424-unit acquisition deal in Deep Ellum was approved by City Council with a 12-2 vote despite significant debate about its AMI mix (20% at 60% AMI, 30% at 80% AMI, 40% at 140% AMI, and 10% market rate) and tax exemption implications. This project was restructured multiple times between September 2024 and January 2025 before final approval on March 26, 2025.
Here's the current state of play based on the most recent meetings (March 22-26, 2025).
Regulatory Changes Coming in April
3/26/25
At the March 26th Council meeting, Housing Committee Chair Jesse Moreno stated:
‟I'm going to support this project not because I believe that it is meeting all our needs. I'm going to support this project because we have not set the recommendations and our developers don't know exactly what we're looking for.
He announced upcoming changes:
‟In April we are actually going to be coming to the housing committee to make sure that we are setting forth those recommendations on AMI, location, public service, and how these spur economic development.
On March 24, 2025, Moreno advocated for clearer policy direction:
‟We have the ability to really do what's best for Dallas currently, but that's gonna require us to put in limitations and to put in best practices, if not the state's going to.
Moreno requested a list of projects that the housing department has "identified and are currently working on" so that we don't have any "last minute changes and that we're only talking about new rules moving forward on projects that you guys have not started work on."
April is when Housing Director Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson will bring her department's formal recommendations to the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee. The new policies could be implemented by July 2025.
Housing Director's Position
3/24/25
On March 24, Housing Director Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson acknowledged that the Oak & Ellum deals conflicted with her own recommendations. When asked directly by Mendelsohn, she confirmed recommending against including units at 140% AMI.
Rogers-Ellickson emphasized her readiness to address the PFC & HFC bylaw review.
‟My recommendation was not to take existing market rate properties off the tax roll and have them re-developed. We were looking for that deeper affordability. That is correct. And that is the public good and the public benefit of providing this very significant tax exemption.
‟Bring back the policy and changes that I have recommended. And I will be happy to talk through each one again so that we can make a decision on what we want the policy to be.
The HFC Process and Scrutiny
3/26/25 – 3/24/25
Aaron Eaquinto, General Manager for HFC, defended the HFC's vetting process on March 26, 2025. His comments directly acknowledged the policy question at the heart of the debate
‟The HFC Board, who you guys all appoint, they vet all of these as well and they vet many more projects that don't come to this body... it's not our goal to take anything off the tax rolls because we know it's a burden on everyone, but the mission to provide affordable housing is important enough where sometimes this investment is warranted.
‟Does the council think the investment into affordable housing is worth the foregoing of the revenue? Now, obviously that's a decision y'all make. We contend that yes, providing the restricted rate units in this particular area will provide a good benefit to those people at or below these certain restricted rates.
Eaquinto highlighted additional benefits beyond the stated affordability restrictions:
‟All of our properties that the HFC owns, we accept the vouchers. And so even though it's not stated on the rent restrictions, we do go down to these 30% levels because we are participating in these projects.
HFC Acquisition Deal Pause
3/24/25
Aaron Eaquinto, HFC General Manager, noted at the March 24th H&HS Committee meeting:
‟I've told developers, 'Hey, we're gonna pause on this type of acquisition just to make sure that what you guys want is clear and what we are able to do is clear. I can't go around promising anything if I don't know what I can promise.'
DPFC Board's Position on Bylaw Changes
3/25/25
The March 25, 2025 meeting revealed significant tension between the PFC board and city departments over who controls the organization's governance.
The PFC board is navigating a complex process to update their bylaws. They've proposed a retreat-style meeting at City Hall with city staff, the City Attorney's Office, Council members, and the full board for final discussion and action. This collaborative approach aims to ensure the board has time to "fully digest" the changes while allowing city entities to review them before approval by both the board and city council.
What makes this situation notable is the fundamental disagreement about authority. Director Tallis voiced strong objections during the meeting:
‟We were created by legislature. State created us for the purpose of filling a gap where multifamily projects would not be done because of the lack of financial... We were created to be an independent organization. That is the legislative intent.
He considers the city department's approach to bylaw changes "objectionable," "unprofessional," and "unnecessary."
The core issue centers on statutory independence versus city oversight. The PFC was established by state law as an independent entity with a specific affordable housing mission. Now the board feels city departments are dictating changes rather than engaging in proper collaboration. Tallis suggested the city attorney's office might be overstepping:
‟We have a department within the city telling us how our bylaws should be changed. Maybe the city attorney office needs to take a look at charter organizational documents and say, wait a minute, you guys can't do it this way.
The current process involves sending draft feedback to the Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions (HHS) Committee, Council Member Jesse Moreno, by March 31, 2025. The board emphasized these are preliminary notes, not approved changes, as they haven't had the "full open discussion" yet. They're maintaining a "draft" watermark on documents to prevent misinterpretation.
‟If you want to change bylaws, sit down with the board. Let's have a healthy discussion.
The meeting didn't resolve these tensions, and the details of the actual bylaw changes weren't specified.
PFC Pipeline
3/25/25
Meanwhile, the PFC pipeline at the end Q1 is strong.
On March 25th, Housing Project Manager Sam McDaniel reported that the DPFC now has seven properties leasing with over 1,000 units total. Four additional properties are in the application stage, with two expected to submit applications in the coming weeks.
McDaniel noted they're "looking to move Bloc House Santa Fe by the end of next month" and are "trying to move these fully approved projects through." He explained that some projects approved in May 2023 were rushed due to pending state legislation and might "need a little bit more of a grace period."
The DPFC is also working on resolving documentation issues with the MIHDB program and expects the Power & Light project to be "shovel ready soon."
The March 25th meeting included discussion about the finance committee's proposals for using the DPFC's approximately $4 million in excess funds–a point of criticism in the bylaw review process. Director Tallis suggested:
‟I think our funds rightfully should go towards housing. But there isn't any reason why we can't be a bridge lender to some of our developers. So we take this money and we get interest from it, and we can keep recycling the money in that fashion to help developers stimulate development under our program.
Full Bylaws Review Analysis: 3/26/25 – 8/26/24 PFC & HFC Bylaws Review
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