Local Dallas nonprofit Anthem Strong Families cohosted an event on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss issues that could potentially prevent lower-income families from succeeding.
It brought together civic, business, and thought leaders in roundtable sessions to examine fatherhood and family issues.
The City of Dallas Public Library helped host the event, titling it the “2022 Dallas Regional Family and Fatherhood Summit: ‘Protecting the Masterpiece of Family: A Community Call to Action.'”
The topics covered on September 7 and 8 included mental health effects, trauma, economic disparities, generational poverty, incarceration, and fatherlessness.
One roundtable session, titled “Families and the Lack of Affordable Housing,” featured Tommy Jones, president and CEO of Take Back the Block; Effie Dennison, executive vice president and head of community development and corporate responsibility at Texas Capital Bank; and LaTonia Donaldson, vice president and national director of multi-cultural lending at Prime Lending.
The conversation was not limited to these panelists but involved members of the community as well.
Their discussion focused on the lack of “affordable homeownership” available to lower-income families, its consequences, and potential solutions. Most participants agreed that the problem must be solved through “responsible lending,” helping these communities “stabilize.”
Chiefly existing in southern Dallas below Interstate 30, these communities are often referred to as “The Bottom.” Several participants argued that the moniker alone has a negative effect on these neighborhoods, adding that the perception of South Dallas must change before conditions improve.
The panel discussed difficulties black families might face when purchasing and owning a home in Dallas due to so-called predatory lending practices, emphasizing how homeownership needs to be made more accessible.
Many participants agreed that “the American dream has become a nightmare,” as families qualify for mortgages on unimproved assets and are allegedly robbed of wealth by predatory lenders.
Additionally, panel members and the local community agreed that financial education is the key to solving this problem. Because financial literacy is not taught in public schools or in most homes, financially illiterate borrowers are less savvy.
Jones urged that homes should be sold to families rather than institutional buyers and hedge funds.
“You’re already paying for someone’s mortgage. Let me teach you how to pay your own,” Jones said, adding renters are usually paying the mortgage of an institution or hedge fund.
Rather than merely shedding light on the problems faced by lower-income communities, participants shared their views on how to address the issues.
When asked to share Anthem Strong Families’ reason for hosting the summit, Director of Marketing and Development Lisa Brown-Ross told The Dallas Express the group’s mission was to tackle the issues keeping families from success.
“We are looking at violence and trauma and affordable housing, fatherlessness, mental health disparities, and health care disparities,” she said, “because what we understand is that if we are going to have a strong community, it all begins with the family.”
Brown-Ross added, “And so, we have brought policymakers and thought leaders together to really drill down on some tough issues and ask tough questions so that we can address them.”
Brown-Ross noted that a doctoral student is currently working with the organization to “synthesize all these conversations and present a white paper in about another year to engage the conversation.”
With that information, Anthem Strong Families will “look at what we should be focusing on, where we should be directing funding, and those kinds of issues.”