Texas Republicans say a slate of laws passed this session will help lower housing costs. It’s music to the ears of liberal housing advocates.
DALLAS — When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed bill after bill aimed at improving housing affordability in 2025, he made into law policies that liberal housing advocates have wanted for years.
Bills like SB 840 — which allows developers to build apartment buildings in commercial areas — reduce the amount of control local municipalities have over zoning restrictions, encouraging more housing units with the idea that costs will decline as inventory grows.
“Housing scrambles know battle lines I think more than other issues these days,” said Co-Founder of Dallas Neighbors for Housing Adam Lamont. “I was surprised at how willing a lot of Republicans were to really pick up the mantle and pass some of these things.”
Lamont, who said he is a liberal Democrat, lobbied at the State Capitol in Austin for passage of housing-friendly bills — some of which were triumphed by Republican lawmakers at a signing ceremony in August.
“This session Texas did more than any state in America to make housing more affordable,” said Abbott. “[We will] take every step necessary to improve housing supply and improve affordability of housing.”
The political alliance makes for strange bedfellows, Lamont said. Other housing advocates also celebrate the progress made in Texas in 2025.
“This was the single best legislative session I would say we’ve seen any state have,” said Pew Charitable Trusts’ Housing Policy Project Director Alex Horowitz at a Dallas Housing Coalition summit in November, calling Texas a “terrific national model.”
But not everyone is on board. Some suburbs around DFW have taken action to try to limit the effects of bills like SB 840, the Texas Tribune reported earlier this year.
“Make no mistake, I have always supported more housing in this city,” Plano Mayor John Muns said in August. He said the new laws have “taken complete authority away from what our community would like to see.”
Plano passed regulations requiring new apartment buildings to have a certain height — and other nearby cities required additional amenities like swimming pools and dog parks in an effort to limit and control new builds, the Tribune reported.
“Ultimately it backfires,” Lamont said. “It just makes it harder and developers just end up going elsewhere.”
He said he hopes state Republicans look to plug those loopholes in upcoming legislative sessions — continuing an unlikely political partnership on housing affordability.
“I’m intrigued. I think it’s still early to know the full effect,” he said.