McKinney leaders tackle growing housing affordability gap

McKinney’s housing strain is showing up in hard numbers now: 12,473 renter households and 9,748 owner households were cost burdened in 2023, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of income on housing. That pressure is unfolding in a city where the median household income is $124,215, yet more than 40 percent of households still earn less than $100,000 a year.

City leaders, developers, nonprofits and employers gathered April 13 at the MISD Community Event Center for the first McKinney Affordable Housing Summit, a four-hour session from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. that drew roughly 300 people. The event, hosted by McKinney Front Porch, was designed as a forum to explore housing partnerships, incentives and city support for workforce housing. McKinney Front Porch was launched in 2023 by the McKinney Community Development Corporation as a collaborative affordable housing effort.

The summit built on a needs assessment Root Policy Research presented to McKinney City Council on Feb. 17 as part of the city’s 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan. In the council discussion and later summit materials, the message was clear: affordability is no longer a side issue, even in one of Collin County’s stronger housing markets. The report showed cost burdens rising for both renters and owners between 2015 and 2023, underscoring how quickly gains in the local economy can be outpaced by housing costs.

Council member Justin Beller said the impact reaches well beyond rent and mortgage payments. When households are forced to spend too much on housing, he said, they have less money for food, health care and education, and less spending power in the local economy. That dynamic also puts pressure on employers who rely on workers across the income spectrum, from service jobs to middle-income positions that keep the city running day to day.

The summit program listed Mayor Bill Cox as the opening speaker and Margaret Li, the city’s director of Housing and Community Development, presenting the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment and Recommendations. Felicity Maxwell was scheduled to discuss the 2027 legislative session, signaling that McKinney’s housing challenges are now tied to state policy as well as local planning.

The gap ahead is large. A projection from the Root Policy Research analysis says McKinney will need more than 7,500 affordable rental units and more than 13,800 affordable ownership units by 2035. Habitat for Humanity of Collin County is already part of the response, with plans to build two new townhome communities on Kings Row, a five-plex and a six-plex for 11 families. The affiliate says it completed an earlier Kings Row townhome project earlier this year and was incorporated in McKinney in 1992, a reminder that the city’s affordability problem now has countywide implications.