Tarrant County Authorizes $19.9 Million for Affordable Housing

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court authorized $19.9 million for affordable and deeply affordable housing, which will fund 105 units of housing in four developments.

The Tarrant County Commissioners Court allocated $32.5 million to increase the number of affordable housing units for people experiencing homelessness. The funding comes from the American Recuse Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). The Court plans to authorize a second round of proposals to allocate the remaining $12.6 million.

“I’m proud of how quickly we are moving to fund these proposals for affordable and deeply affordable housing,” said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley. “We have great community partners who are ready to develop these units and, by doing so, we will significantly decrease the number of people facing homelessness in Tarrant County. Once again, I believe Tarrant County is setting the bar for collaborative partnerships and the strategic deployment of resources.”

Fort Worth Housing Solutions, Presbyterian Night Shelter, and Tobias Place, LP, are the developers who received funding authorizations.

An evaluation committee made up of one representative each from Tarrant County Housing, Tarrant County Community Development, Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, the Continuum of Care Board, the finance and lending industry, and one individual who experienced homelessness were responsible for reviewing and scoring each proposal. Proposals were scored in the areas of quality of development, financial feasibility, development capacity and federal funding experience, community impact, economic and community inclusion, and project readiness.

Supportive Housing is defined as medium-to-long-term rental assistance combined with case management for the same term.

Deeply Affordable Housing is defined as housing units for households that have earned income but have experienced homelessness due to the inability to pay market rent.

Permanent Supportive Housing is defined as long-term rental assistance coupled with case management for the same term. Housing is expected to be a low barrier for households that qualify, especially those experiencing chronic homelessness.