Community Resource Explorer
CPAL built the Community Resource Explorer to ensure that all Dallas neighborhoods are places of great opportunity for children and their families.
Dallas neighborhoods are unique, each with their own stories to tell, people to celebrate, and places to love. Our neighborhoods are a tremendous asset to our city. However, some neighborhoods are well-appointed with resources, like grocery stores and doctor’s offices and park space, but many others are not.
The CRE is a diagnostic tool that illustrates how resources are allocated across five categories and 30+ indicators in neighborhoods around Dallas ISD schools. The intent of the tool is to help frontline institutions act on relevant, specific data so that investment decisions and resource allocation can have the greatest impact.
Our hope is that the CRE can help right the wrongs of the past by bringing new programs and services, economic development opportunities, and public amenities to communities that have been under-resourced for far too long.
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Closing the Gap: The $25M Initiative Aiming to Improve Maternal Outcomes Across DFW
In the face of discouraging maternal health data in Texas, TCU and UT Southwestern have joined forces to launch the North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator. Since December 2024, 11 philanthropic organizations have committed nearly $25 million to address maternal morbidity, preterm birth rates, and other maternal health conditions at a crucial time for the accelerator.
- The $25 million commitment from 11 partners across the region comes at a key time for the MHA initiative, which was poised to secure $15 million in federal funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health’s (ARPA-H) Health Care Rewards to Achieve Improved Outcomes program, an outcomes-based payment model that would have released funds based on measurable impact. When the new administration cut the budget on the eve of the funding being distributed this summer, the future of the MHA was in jeopardy.
- Despite the lack of funding, MHA forged ahead with one of its goals: reducing severe obstetric complications by more than 20 percent over three years and developing economic models that reward maternal health improvements.
An Underutilized Housing Affordability Tool: Homestead Exemptions
CPAL examines homestead exemption access in Dallas County — who’s claiming, who isn’t, and how much money eligible homeowners could realize if they claimed this...
- ~57K residential properties in Dallas County may be eligible for the homestead exemption but have not yet claimed it, for an estimated total benefit of ~$310M.
- ~40K properties in low-income and very low-income census tracts in Dallas County may be eligible for the homestead exemption but have not yet claimed it, for an estimated total benefit of ~$200M, or ~$5,000 per household.
- While an estimated 95% of eligible households in high-income census tracts claim their homestead exemption, only 81% of households in very low-income census tracts claim their homestead exemption.
Improve Housing Choice Voucher Acceptance
CPAL’s Housing Voucher Acceptance Guide explains Dallas’ voucher ecosystem dynamics and ways to improve HCV acceptance.
- In a 2020 survey of apartment complexes across Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, and Collin Counties conducted by the Inclusive Communities Project, only 7% of respondents reported accepting vouchers.
- Those that benefit most from vouchers are primarily women and BIPOC renters who live below the federal poverty threshold. 15% of the DHA Housing Choice Voucher recipients (~2,400 families) are households with dependent children.