Texas lawmakers find bipartisan solutions to tackle state’s housing crunch

From creating more affordable housing to cracking down on squatters, here’s where several housing-focused bills ended up at the end of the legislative session.

Lawmakers aimed to remedy the housing affordability crisis Texans are currently facing with a slew of bills during this year’s legislative session.

Here’s where those bills ended up as the legislature finished its session on Monday.

Bill allows smaller lots in new neighborhoods

Senate Bill 15 — one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities — is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk and will go into effect Sept. 1 unless Abbott vetoes it.

The bill aims to create more affordable housing by reducing the minimum lot size required in new neighborhoods, empowering builders to develop more houses on a piece of land at lower prices.

The amended bill prohibits cities with populations greater than 150,000 in counties with more than 300,000 residents from mandating minimum lot sizes greater than 3,000 square feet in new neighborhoods.

Most of the state’s biggest cities require single-family homes to sit on around 5,000 to 7,500 square feet of land, according to the Texas Tribune.

“From a housing policy perspective, this was Texas’ most productive legislative session in recent memory, if not ever,” Bryan Tony, executive director of the Dallas Housing Coalition said. “We applaud our lawmakers for reducing minimum lot size requirements, which will lead to the production of tens of thousands of homes for Texans over the next decade.”

Bill targets evictions and squatters

Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 38, which claims to be an anti-squatter bill. 

While the final bill wasn’t as concerning as tenant rights advocates feared, critics of the bill said that the amended law still makes it easier for landlords to evict renters and increase homelessness in Texas. The bill passed with mostly Republican support.

SB 38 is meant to help property owners evict squatters who illegally occupy a property. House members agreed to strip a provision that tenant advocates said allowed landlords to remove renters from their homes without being notified, and didn’t allow tenants to fight the matter in court.

“Texas Housers and the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center led a ton of tenant advocates whittling away at Senate Bill 38 to make it more narrowly apply to squatters and even added a limited ‘right to cure’ into Texas law for the first time, allowing tenants that are late on rent to pay in full instead of facing eviction,” Tony said.

In Dallas, residents are more at risk for eviction than anywhere else in the US.

Building accessory dwelling units fails

Senate Bill 673 — which legalized accessory dwelling units statewide — did not make it to Abbott’s desk, despite passing the Senate with bipartisan support. The bill stalled in the House.

Accessory dwelling units — also known as mother-in-law suites, tiny homes, or backyard cottages — are secondary housing units on a single-family lot. They allow homeowners more freedom to create an affordable rental on their property without changing the look of a street.

Tony said SB 673 was a missed opportunity for lawmakers, but that it gives the Dallas Housing Coalition more to work towards moving forward.

“This gives us more to work towards locally and in future sessions because the need for housing is still great,” Tony said. “We believe many of these proven reforms that did pass will bear fruit in the form of more homes, more housing choices, and more housing access — slowing down our state’s rapidly rising housing costs for the benefit of all Texans.”

Bill makes it easier to create housing in vacant offices, strip malls

Lawmakers also passed Senate Bill 840, which will take effect on Sept. 1 unless Abbott vetoes the bill. The measure allows developers to build apartments and multi-family homes in areas that are already zoned for office, commercial, or retail, making it easier for vacant office buildings and strip malls to be converted into housing. The bill passed with bipartisan support.

The bill allows developers to skip over the rezoning process, which housing advocates say is costly, lengthy, and drives up the final cost of a home.

However, it will only apply to Texas cities with a population greater than 150,000 people, in a county with at least 300,000 residents.

Bill makes it harder to block new homes in your neighborhood

House Bill 24 is headed to Abbott’s desk after passing the legislature with bipartisan support.

The bill aims to increase the amount of high-density housing in the state by weakening a 100-year-old law that property owners used to stop new homes from going up near them. Supporters hope the law helps address skyrocketing home prices.

The Jim Crow-era law mandated that if a builder wants to rezone a property and 20% of neighboring landowners object, the governing city council needs a supermajority to approve the zoning change.

HB 24 raises the number of objecting neighbors needed to kill the project to 60%, and prevents property owners from using the law to block citywide zoning changes.“House Bill 24 paves the way for comprehensive land use reforms that cities like Dallas desperately need, and streamlines existing programs, including Dallas’ highly successful mixed-income density bonus program,” Tony said.