Fort Worth has started or completed 36 of the 41 recommendations laid out in its five-year Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Housing Affordability Strategy, city officials say, even as staff turnover, funding gaps and competing priorities have slowed some of the work meant to ease the city's housing crunch and stabilize struggling neighborhoods.
A Five-Year Roadmap Nearing Its Finish Line
The Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Housing Affordability Strategy is described by the Fort Worth Report as a five-year roadmap designed to address distressed neighborhoods and the city's broader housing affordability crisis. The plan splits its 41 recommendations into two tracks: 17 tied to the Neighborhood Conservation Plan, of which 16 have been started or completed, and 24 under the Housing Affordability Strategy, with 20 underway or done, according to the Fort Worth Neighborhood Services Department.
That marks movement from where things stood in January 2025, when a formal report showed only 23 of the 41 recommendations had been completed or started. Neighborhood Services Director Kacey Thomas said meaningful impact and progress has been made toward completing the plan's goals, though she acknowledged staffing, funding and competing priorities have caused problems in reaching them, per the same report.
Where the Money and Land Are Going
The city has leaned on several funding streams to move the recommendations forward. Fort Worth residents approved using $10 million in bond money for affordable housing, and the Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation, the city's housing development entity, acquired six city-owned tax-foreclosed properties for residential development, the Neighborhood Services Department reported. The department also uses HUD funding for emergency rental assistance and Texas Veterans Commission funds for rent and mortgage assistance, and it relies on Housing Finance Corporation initiatives along with HOME grant funds to build affordable housing.
Beyond direct assistance, the city's Open Space Conservation Program has acquired more than 500 acres, aiming to protect natural areas and habitats from urban development while providing equitable access to underserved and marginalized neighborhoods and communities, the article notes. Meanwhile, the city's Planning Division has mapped vacant residential lots and is helping develop a database of undeveloped city-owned parcels intended to identify potential residential development opportunities.
One Recommendation Hasn't Moved
Not every piece of the plan has advanced. The neighborhood strategy revitalization areas recommendation is the only Neighborhood Conservation Plan item that has not started, the department reported. Neighborhood Services has identified Las Vegas Trail and Woodhaven as neighborhoods that could use such revitalization areas, and the department says it plans to move forward with the designations within the next few years.
Looking ahead, the Neighborhood Services Department plans to create a pattern book of preapproved middle-housing designs, which would include townhomes, duplexes and fourplexes. The pattern book recommendation will also include a study of what the city actually needs, according to the department. Thomas said her next steps are to prioritize the remaining recommendations, identify items that cannot realistically be completed within the five-year window, suggest modifications where needed and coordinate tracking across departments — working more proactively with city departments and external organizations to track meaningful progress, she said.
A Statewide Squeeze on Supply
Fort Worth's push comes against a backdrop of a statewide housing shortfall. Texas may need roughly 320,000 additional homes to ease its housing shortage and bring down costs, according to one estimate cited by the Texas Tribune. The outlet's analysis of zoning codes and land-use patterns across 11 of the state's largest cities found that standalone single-family homes can be built on more than 98% of land zoned for residential use, while other housing types — like the townhomes and duplexes envisioned in Fort Worth's pattern book — are permitted on less than two-fifths of that same land. The Tribune's analysis concludes those restrictions limit how many homes can ultimately be built, leaving residents to compete for a limited supply and pushing up both prices and rents.
Other Texas cities have pursued their own responses to the same pressures. Dallas officials approved a comprehensive land-use plan aimed at encouraging more housing types in traditionally single-family neighborhoods, per the Tribune's reporting. Fort Worth's own strategy, still working through its final recommendations, represents the city's attempt to chart a similar course while managing the staffing and funding constraints that have already slowed parts of the plan.
