City News Roundup

West Dallas housing stays on front burner and more Dallas city news

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge has made the land in West Dallas more valuable.

Photo courtesy of kanonsky/iStock

The West Dallas housing situation continued to dominate city news, DART passed a controversial vote, and Dallas police chief David Brown threw himself a big retirement party. Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

West Dallas evictions postponed
In the ongoing West Dallas housing saga, Judge Ken Molberg issued a temporary restraining order on October 24, postponing the evictions of 300-plus residents who live in homes owned by HMK Ltd.

HMK, owned by Khraish A. Khraish and his father, Hanna, has been renting the homes for more than 10 years at cheap rates between $300 and $450 a month. The land has increased in value, and HMK has been the recipient of a number of code complaints. HMK is now shutting down its rental business.

The saga blew up on October 19, when the Dallas Observer published an audio recording of a meeting between Mayor Mike Rawlings and Khraish, in which the mayor pushed for HMK to sell the land.

Another damning audio tape
On October 26, the Observer published a second audio recording of a meeting between Rawlings, HMK, and city council member Monica Alonzo, who represents West Dallas. They're trying to find a solution to the housing situation. Khraish brought along Bill Hall, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, in an attempt to broker a deal for the land and preserve low-income housing, but Rawlings would not allow Hall to attend.

The outcome of the meeting was that lawyers for the city of Dallas would look for ways to reduce the number of code violations being written against HMK, and HMK would refrain from immediate eviction of its tenants.

DART board drama
In a controversial move, the DART board of directors approved plans to build the Cotton Belt commuter rail between Plano and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, as well as a subway line in downtown Dallas. A packed house turned out to witness the vote.

Addison residents, who wore yellow T-shirts, were in favor of the Cotton Belt rail; Dallas' inner-city crowd, in green shirts, opposed the Cotton Belt because of the high toll it would take on the system overall. DART executives claim their budget can support both projects.

Chief Brown's big bang
After 33 years as a cop, and six as police chief, David Brown has retired. He announced his retirement shortly after the burst of national attention he received for his handling of the July 7 shooting in downtown Dallas.

Brown went out with a private reception at the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center, where he said he will not run for office but revealed he does "have a great interest in using the media platform to convey a message about bringing people together." He's represented by a talent agency in New York.

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income analysis

This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

The cost of raising a child has ballooned in major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, forcing many families to weight the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas, that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support their stay-at-home partner and their child, the report found. If both parents worked in the household, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in North Texas, however, is slightly more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $22,337 to raise a child in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report's author says families will look for ways to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family