2025 Retrospective: Building Connected Communities, Stronger Neighborhood Partnerships, and Housing Momentum for DCH
Dallas’ housing pressures didn’t take a break in 2025, nor did the non-profit developers working to meet the need. The City of Dallas reported a shortage of 39,900 affordable rental homes, and this supply gap is projected to widen. Nearly half of Dallas renters are cost-burdened (paying more than 30% of income toward housing), which strains budgets and, as a result, neighborhoods are more vulnerable to displacement. Against this backdrop, DCH doubled down in 2025, bringing solutions that we know work: investing in people, strengthening neighborhood capacity, and building the local infrastructure to increase neighborhood resilience. Here’s what 2025 looked like on the ground, in partnership, and in progress.
Launching the Connected Communities Initiative
This year, DCH formally launched the Connected Communities Initiative to align housing development with the neighborhood systems to promote stability and upward mobility. The premise is that housing outcomes improve when communities are connected. When neighborhood organizations are resourced, and development is shaped by community voice, communities transform. This is our signature operational approach we used for decades: developing homes and providing neighborhood resources. It is now formalized with the CCI. CCI strengthens how DCH shows up more intentionally in the communities we serve.
Deepening neighborhood capacity with the partners who know the work best
Another 2025 theme was the deepening relationships with our Neighborhood Capacity Building Partners. We partner with these organizations that are already doing the daily work of organizing their communities and advocating for equity. According to the Child Poverty Action Lab, half of renters are cost-burdened, making these neighborhood resources lifelines. Resource availability within a community can determine whether families can maintain stability during economic shifts.
Queen City Neighborhood Association: Building Homes and Digital Capacity
Our work alongside the Queen City Neighborhood Association in 2025 included helping develop digital marketing materials and voice, organizing events like National Night Out, and advancing building efforts in Queen City. Building homes adds to inventory while also preserving community identity. DCH is proud to stand with Queen City leadership and residents as the work continues, house by house and block by block.
Armonia and Hillburn Hills
We have reached several milestones in our Armonia development, and we are very excited to open the apartments in 2026. Armonia will bring mixed-income housing to the La Bajada neighborhood in West Dallas. Another important win for DCH was a Spectrum Grant to close the digital divide by providing digital literacy classes and access to technology to the Hillburn Hills residents. The Community Center are middle spaces that serve functions beyond being a repository for resources. The new Hillburn Hills Community Center will be a venue for neighborhood meetings, youth activities, educational programming, and workforce support, and will represent community cohesion and resident-led momentum.
Events and Beyond
DCH’s participation and support of the 2025 National Night Out in Queen City is only one example of how we facilitated community connections. These events are really important gatherings that build the social infrastructure that helps neighborhoods withstand pressure. In 2025, DCH redefined its operational approach: launching Connected Communities, deepening neighborhood partnerships, advancing community-centered development in Queen City, preparing Armonia, and reinvesting in Hillburn Hills. Dallas’ housing challenges are not going to ease on their own, but we have a committed, capable, and growing community to address them.
