Dallas Appraisal District’s Misguided Attack Puts Texas Families and Communities at Risk
Last week, the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) launched an unprecedented attack on a affordable housing, sending more than one hundred notices to projects owned by Housing Finance Corporations (HFCs) that operate across jurisdictional lines. DCAD now claims—contrary to decades of practice—that these HFCs were never permitted to own property outside their home counties, even before the Legislature passed HB21 earlier this year.
The facts tell a different story. For years, DCAD and appraisal districts across Texas issued written predetermination letters confirming both the legality of these ownership structures and their tax-exempt status. Developers relied on those approvals to build thousands of a affordable homes for working Texans.
Now, DCAD is attempting to rewrite history. Its sudden reversal is not only legally groundless—it is dangerous. By weaponizing HB21 against the very developers who stepped up when others would not, DCAD threatens to destabilize the entire a affordable housing sector. The fallout will be swift and severe:
Higher rents for teachers, nurses, first responders, and working parents.
Forced displacement as a affordable communities are forced into market-rate conversions.
Community disruption as children are uprooted from schools and families are pushed farther from jobs and support networks.
Appraisal districts are meant to be nonpartisan, fact-driven arms of government—not political actors. Texans know that a deal’s a deal. State and local governments invited investment, approved contracts, and gave their word. Developers delivered. Now DCAD is moving the goalposts in a way that threatens both hardworking families and Texas’s reputation as a pro-business, pro-growth state.
It’s time for DCAD to reverse course, process the lawful exemptions to which HFCs are entitled, and honor the commitments that put roofs over thousands of Texas families’ heads—by enforcing the law as written.
