McKinney Front Porch hosts first affordable housing summit

“The goal of this summit is really to start partnerships and conversations to generate future projects,” said Margaret Li, director of Housing and Community Development.

In opening remarks, Mayor Bill Cox said the aim of the summit was to come up with solutions.

“It’s easy to talk about it,” Cox said. “Our challenge today is to take whatever we come up with and take it out of the room. Let’s take it out of the room and do something with it.”

The context

During the summit, Li reviewed a recent affordable housing assessment completed by Root Policy Research that showed an increase in cost-burdened households. City staff is using the assessment and its recommendations to build a formal affordable housing strategy, she said.

“We’re aiming to have that to our council by the end of this fiscal year,” Li said. “But the city cannot function on its own. We cannot work in a silo. So in addition to the city’s efforts, all of the stakeholders in attendance today have an important role to play.”

The city is already proactive in using housing development strategies to increase housing supply and provide financial assistance to those who need it, Li said.

“McKinney is recognized as a regional leader in affordable housing efforts, and I'm so proud that our City Council has taken actions to improve housing affordability and expand housing options,” she said.

While "great strides" have been made in addressing housing affordability, there's still a lot of work to be done, Li said.

"Root Policy's recommendations range from establishing a formal affordable housing strategy to building strategic partnerships to increase affordable housing units across all income levels," she said.

By the numbers

Housing cost burdens have increased for renters and owners between 2015 and 2023, according to the report. Cost burden is defined as any household that spends more than 30% of its income on housing costs.

“If you're spending more than 30%, you're considered housing cost-burdened,” Li said. “If you're actually spending 50% or more of your household income on housing, you're actually considered severely cost-burdened.”

A total of 12,473 renter households and 9,748 owner households were cost-burdened in 2023, according to the report.