Photography by Emil Lippe.
Lisa Ramos-López’s eyes were opened to what was happening in her Mount Auburn neighborhood as she spent time at home during the pandemic.
“You had to stop and see what your life was like,” she says. “That’s when we noticed some of the houses that were already in the process of going up slowly. We noticed people moving out — neighbors who had been here for years.”
She learned that high property taxes were pushing longtime residents out of the East Dallas neighborhood. Costs were increasing, but incomes weren’t.
Instead of the single-story frame homes built in the 1920s — the ones common throughout the neighborhood — the new structures were two-story modern houses and duplexes, which don’t match the existing properties and are more expensive. Ramos-López paid less than $100,000 for her home about 10 years ago; today, houses are being listed for at least three times that amount.
Ramos-López says she can see why the family-friendly neighborhood close to Downtown is attractive to newcomers. It’s a point echoed by James Armstrong, president and CEO of Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that develops affordable housing in West Dallas, Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove.
“What we’re seeing today is private investors and speculative developers realizing that the neighborhood that these Black and brown families were pushed into years ago was actually prime property to live,” he says.
A problem…
