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City to reflect merger of four housing-related offices in HUD action plan; public review underway
Summary
The Community Development Commission heard that the city submitted its FY 2025–26 annual action plan to HUD and will update that plan to reflect a city-manager–recommended consolidation of four departments into a new Office of Housing and Community Empowerment. A public review period and an Oct. 8 city‑council hearing were announced.
The Community Development Commission on Sept. 4 heard that the city has submitted its FY 2025–26 annual action plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is updating that plan to reflect a departmental consolidation recommended by the city manager.
Shan Williams, Community Development Division staff in Budget and Management Services, told the commission that “we did submit the annual plan to HUD on August 16. August 15, actually,” and that the city opened a public review and comment period for Substantial Amendment No. 1 on Aug. 27. Williams said the city council public hearing on that amendment is scheduled for Oct. 8.
The amendment will incorporate organizational changes the city manager recommended Aug. 12: the housing and community development department, the Office of Community Care, the Office of Homeless Solutions and fair housing functions will be consolidated into a single new Office of Housing and Community Empowerment. Commissioner Barrientos summarized committee discussion, saying “there’s 4 departments that are gonna be merged into 1 department.”
Williams told commissioners that the public engagement process for other policy reviews is continuing and that two community engagement meetings remained: one at 10:30 a.m. at MLK and one at 6 p.m. at the West Dallas Center. She said those meetings and the manager’s recommendation will be incorporated into the city’s five‑year HUD plan.
Commissioners asked procedural questions about how the merger and HUD allocations would be reflected in the annual plan and how the public comment period interfaces with the Oct. 8 council hearing. Williams emphasized that the public review process and the amendment timeline are intended to run in parallel so the new fiscal year work can start Oct. 1.
The exchange at the commission meeting was procedural; no formal vote on the amendment or the merger occurred at the Sept. 4 meeting. Chair Rubin and staff encouraged commissioners to attend the remaining community engagement meetings.
The commission meeting agenda included additional committee reports and scheduling items, but the merger and the HUD amendment were the principal programmatic items discussed.
