Builders of Hope presents 'A Right to Stay' anti-displacement toolkit to Dallas committee

Builders of Hope on Wednesday presented a citywide anti-displacement toolkit titled “A Right to Stay” to the Dallas City Council Housing and Homelessness Committee, laying out neighborhood maps that show concentrated vulnerability in the Southern sector and recommending five priority actions for the City of Dallas.

The nonprofit’s chief community development and policy officer, Stephanie Champion, said the toolkit—funded with grants and produced with data partners—maps neighborhood change across a ten‑year period and offers policy and program recommendations intended to reduce direct, indirect and cultural displacement.

The toolkit matters because it combines neighborhood vulnerability, demographic change and housing‑market strength into a typology that identifies where displacement pressures are accelerating. Builders of Hope told the committee that more than 40% of Dallas neighborhoods are either susceptible to or experiencing some stage of gentrification, and that proximity to the urban core and public investments such as TIF districts can accelerate pressure on affordable communities.

Champion said Builders of Hope secured grant funding from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Dallas Foundation, and that the toolkit’s mapping covers 2011–2021. “We spent two years conducting policy research, developing and refining our neighborhood mapping methodology, conducting extensive community outreach and engagement, drafting and compiling policy recommendations, and finally launched and published our toolkit in November of last year,” Champion said. She said the toolkit…