Irving forum catalogs tools to boost capital for housing; consultant urges credit enhancements and targeted incentives

City of Irving planning staff hosted a public session on increasing access to capital for housing, where consultant Raquel Davela outlined financing and policy tools the city could use to make development and end-user financing more feasible. "You should not be spending more than 30% of your household income on housing expenses," Davela said as she framed affordability targets and reviewed how Irving's limited land supply and aging multifamily inventory affect costs.

Davela recommended expanding soft second-mortgage assistance and seeking non-federal funding sources alongside federal programs the city already uses, naming CDBG, HOME, ESG and HOPWA as building blocks for assistance. On the development side, she described mechanisms to reduce costs or improve returns for private developers — neighborhood empowerment zones that can freeze property values and allow permit or development-fee waivers, density bonuses, accessory dwelling units and community land trusts that separate land ownership from building ownership.

To address lender reluctance for untested market projects, Davela outlined credit enhancements and GAP financing as ways to shore up investor or lender returns. She described credit enhancements as guarantees or loan-loss reserve structures that can be set up from soft funds (city, foundations, or state) to "guarantee either the lender or the investor the level of return that they need." She also cautioned that innovations such as tiny-home developments or independent-living cottage projects may require higher city investment initially because lenders and appraisers in Irving are not yet accustomed to those products.

Davela emphasized site-level due diligence, recommending overlaying a market value analysis (MVA) with developable and publicly owned land to identify priority areas the city could incentivize in the short, medium and long term. She noted potential programmatic and legislative tools the city could consider: targeted TIF districts or a housing trust fund, fee-in-lieu mechanisms, NRSA-like approaches to mix incomes, use of code-enforcement fees to fund repairs, and, where allowed by state law, land-banking or homestead-preservation districts.

On household affordability metrics she provided concrete examples from the income tables used in the analysis: for a household of four, Davela cited roughly $1,247 per month available for housing at 60% of AMI and about $644 at 30% of AMI, numbers she said are useful when sizing potential senior or subsidized products. On the regulatory side, she confirmed the Community Reinvestment Act remains a CRA requirement for financial institutions but said lenders increasingly meet obligations through small-business lending rather than mortgage activity in particular neighborhoods.

Steve Reid, the city's Planning and Community Development Director, and attendees asked site-specific questions during the session. Reid noted the city council previously approved an economic development agreement to redevelop the old lumberyard on Irving Boulevard (Heritage Crossing) into a multifamily development with retail; staff said the project would include a six-story parking garage and is expected to develop over several years. Davela and staff directed participants to submit further ideas via note cards or planning@cityofirving.org and reminded attendees that the session series is recorded by ICTN and that a final session on production strategies was scheduled for the evening.

The discussion produced a menu of near-term and long-term options Irving can pursue to expand capital for affordable housing: expand soft second programs and targeted subsidies for lenders, deploy credit enhancements selectively, pursue land-use incentives where community context allows, and use data-driven targeting (MVA) to focus limited public dollars where modest interventions can attract private investment.