City Hall Roundup: North Oak Cliff Residents Oppose Increase in Beds at Fort Worth Avenue Homeless Housing Development

The City of Dallas has spent almost four years trying to repurpose a vacant motel into permanent supportive housing, and with a new architect on board and a permit pending City Council approval, it looks like it might finally happen. 

Not everyone is happy about it. 

Kirksey Architecture Hired to Revamp Former Hotel Miramar For Homeless Housing

The City Plan Commission recommended approval of a specific use permit on May 16 that increases the number of units from about 43 to a maximum of 70. 

North Oak Cliff neighbors say they are impatient for the former Hotel Miramar to fulfill its purpose of providing homes for the unhoused, but they have concerns about the increase in units. 

Read the staff report here. 

Neighbor Concerns About 1950 Fort Worth Avenue

The increase in units was not agreed to by surrounding single-family neighborhoods, which were “originally led to believe and consented to a 40- to 43-unit conversion for permanent supported housing for elderly and disabled residents,” Katherine Homan, president of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group. told CandysDirt.com. 

Dallas Finally Moves Forward With Plans to Redevelop Hotel Miramar For Homeless Housing 

The increased occupancy will add an undue burden on the Fort Worth Avenue corridor, its surrounding neighborhoods, the Coombs Creek Trail, and Stevens Park Golf Course “with unacceptable environmental and safety hazards if the higher density will not be [permanent supportive housing] for the elderly and disabled,” Homan added. 

“[This] violates the fundamental spirit behind the Fort Worth Avenue [Tax Increment Financing District] and [Planned Development] established to create vibrant commercial development that strengthens existing and adjacent single-family neighborhoods within a pedestrian-friendly environment,” she said. 

Amendment to Specific Use Permit

District 1 Plan Commissioner Christian Chernock made the motion for approval after hearing from a few residents who supported the permit and one who read a letter from Homan. An approved amendment to the SUP outlines that the permit expires in five years with no eligibility for automatic renewals. 

“I think the neighborhood deserves the opportunity to look at this when we have maybe at least two years of operating history from whoever the operator ends up being,” Chernock said. “What this project needs right now is support to get an operator in there.” 

Alice Zaccarello, who lives about half a mile from 1950 Fort Worth Avenue and served on the neighborhood committee for the Miramar project, said she supports the project. There were thousands of people experiencing homelessness in Collin and Dallas counties on a single night, according to Housing Forward’s 2024 Point-in-Time Count, Zaccarello said. 

“The Miramar Hotel was purchased by the city in 2020 to be a small solution to a big problem in Dallas, to provide a place for those with no place to live,” Zaccarello said. “Homelessness is not going away unless those experiencing homelessness have a place to live. Permanent supportive housing is a proven solution to homelessness for the most vulnerable chronically homeless people.” 

Despite the noble intentions of those who want to house the homeless, neighborhood concerns linger, Homan said. 

“As written, this SUP grants unlimited latitude not only for how many will be housed at 1950 Fort Worth Avenue but also whether its residents will be permanent or temporary,” she said. “These are details about which the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group needs assurances in writing since we have a history with the Office of Housing Solutions of repeatedly being told one thing and something else happening.”

District 1 Councilman Chad West addressed the matter in a May 31 newsletter to constituents, saying he plans to ask that the SUP item be held until June 26 when an operator will be selected.

“Staff has promised neighbors that they will have an opportunity to review the Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) that was originally negotiated between neighborhood stakeholders and City Square (the previous operator),” West said. “To date, the GNA has not been produced by staff as the City Attorney’s Office is ensuring the suggested terms are consistent with federal laws and will have an updated draft by June 14. After weeks of pressuring for more transparency on this project, staff has agreed to publish a memo on an upcoming Friday … identifying the proposed operator of the facility, and facilitate a meeting between the operator and stakeholders so that unanswered questions and concerns may be tackled.”