Dallas is moving toward housing homeless people. But councilors were frustrated Monday that they spent millions of dollars buying properties for homeless housing years ago, but still no one lives in them.
As the need for homeless housing grows in Dallas, there have been calls for outside experts to take over the job.
The former Miramar Hotel on Fort Worth Avenue had 73 rooms. It was purchased in 2020 for $3.6 million as a COVID-19 prevention housing project. The plan was to renovate it into 40 housing units that could actually be used by homeless people.
Forth Worth Avenue Update
Dallas City Councilman Chad West represents the neighborhood.
“I hope there's a happy ending. The way we've handled this project and the way we're preparing to handle the rest of the projects, I don't see a path forward,” West said. Told.
Two other properties purchased by the city to house the homeless also remain vacant and unused.
West said he would prepare a memo asking for the work to be contracted out to an outside party that could make the project a reality.
City Councilwoman Carla Mendelsohn said she would also sign.
The Dallas Homelessness Task Force on Monday proposed a plan to spend an additional $6 million to complete the Fort Worth Avenue project.
Homeless housing updates
Director Christine Crossley said she was not involved in the original plan, which was launched three years ago.
The nonprofit organization that was supposed to run the project withdrew.
“We took this opportunity to go back into the community and have extensive conversations about what would be added to that range,” Mr Crossley said.
Councilman Gay Donnell Willis also questioned the city's lack of progress with so many homeless people in need.
“It is our duty and obligation to consider these challenges. That is why these questions are being asked. And we are hearing new information that is very worrying,” Willis said. said.
Funding for the updated Fort Worth Avenue project is not yet complete.
But council members were also told Monday about the progress Dallas has made in partnership with nonprofits to meet its 2021 goal of housing 2,700 homeless people by this month. Ta.
The new goal is 6,000 people by 2025.
At the same time, rising housing prices in Dallas and older homes that are more affordable are becoming more expensive, said Jori Robinson, CEO of Housing Forward, formerly known as the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. The number of homeless people could increase as large and expensive new housing units replace them.
“We need to get serious about extremely affordable housing. Our homelessness response system is not a prevention system. Unfortunately, our homelessness response system does not wait until a person is unhoused. It’s set up like it has to be,” Robinson said. “We're going to see the impact of people not being able to afford to buy a home. We're going to see more and more people being affected by that. People are being displaced by the arrival of development and they have no other options. There's going to be more and more. And our system can't continue to flood bail while we have so many individuals flooding into the market.”
Robinson also said the homeless encampment response needs improvements to quickly move people from camps to housing.
Dallas is hiring 16 additional outreach workers for that role in the new city budget that took effect Oct. 1.
Another report from the Dallas City Council Housing and Homelessness Committee found that the cost of providing supportive housing can be saved compared to the cost of other public services, such as hospitals, that are more likely to be used by unhoused people. Stated.
