Zarin Gracey Is Still Fighting for Homeless Supportive Housing in His District
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District 3 Dallas City Councilman Zarin Gracey couldn’t hide his frustration in a late June Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee meeting. He’s heard from his constituents that they don’t like any of the city’s ideas to repurpose an old hospital on Hampton Road. He wants to sell that site and use the funds to address a looming homeless crisis and business exodus elsewhere in his district.
It’s not complicated, Gracey said, pleading with his colleagues for support.
The former hospital at 2929 S. Hampton Road, purchased by the City of Dallas for $6.5 million in 2022, was originally considered for repurposing as permanent supportive housing for the homeless. Gracey met with neighbors several times and reported back to the council that his D3 residents are “shouting” for Dallas to sell the site and move on.
Community in Crisis
Meanwhile, a situation near another city-owned property at 4150 Independence Drive is getting out of control, Gracey said in a June 24 housing committee meeting.
“Right now I have businesses on the brink of closing because there are tents in front of the stores,” he said of the homeless situation near Independence Drive. “We are creating an issue and it’s literally evolving right in front of our eyes. Every time you drive down Camp Wisdom going to Redbird Mall, there’s a new issue. I’m asking you all to please support not just me but what the community has continuously said.”
Although the Dallas City Council wouldn’t agree to selling the Hampton Road building and using the funds for Independence, a silver lining emerged when a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) was issued July 8 asking interested developers to submit applications to:
- Acquire the City-owned property at 4150 Independence Drive;
- Rehabilitate the property, with the assistance of City funding in an initial amount of $4.3 million into at least 100 housing units for multifamily use;
- Obtain additional capital funding to complete rehabilitation; and
- Operate the rehabilitated facility as permanent supportive housing for as long as the City deems it necessary to serve a public purpose.
Hampton Road and Independence Drive
The discussion about 2929 South Hampton Road opened up last month as city officials discussed an expired consulting contract with The Wright Choice Group LLC for community engagement and project recommendations at Hampton Road.
“The problem was we started this contract without actually talking to the community about what we wanted to do with the property,” Gracey said. “It was kind of out of order. Once we had the community meetings […] the consistent message was to sell it. Because there’s a greater issue on the Independence property, I wanted to revamp that discussion to figure out what we could do and start having conversations around a Public Improvement District.”
Gracey inherited the project when he took office about a year ago. While the councilman has not been publicly critical of his predecessor, Casey Thomas, several District 3 residents have said the project was bungled due to a lack of community feedback.
Resident Concerns
Cathy Lauer, vice president of Brentwood Neighborhood Association, said in an April 2024 email to neighbors that demolition of the empty hospital on Hampton Road would cost a minimum of $2 million. Building a facility from scratch could cost up to $23 million.
“The city can solicit not-for-profit partners and philanthropic donors, but at some point, I need to ask myself — we all need to ask ourselves — how many millions of taxpayer/donor dollars are reasonably spent to house approximately 100 formerly homeless people?” Lauer said.
“Is spending multiple tens of millions of dollars the best expenditure of limited resources to help a relatively small number of our vulnerable population?”
The money could be better spent and help more people if an alternative solution is pursued, she added.
“As many other D3 and D4 stakeholders have observed, let’s walk before we attempt to win gold medals in a field where we do not have a proven track record,” Lauer said. “The city has three to four empty facilities that they are trying to get up and running. I would like to see some data-supported evidence of success here in Dallas before we commit multiple tens of millions of tax dollars to more of these potential projects.”
That sentiment was echoed in the June 24 housing meeting as District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn pointed out that Dallas is “terrible at developing property.”
“If [Hampton Road] is not going to be for a homeless purpose, we don’t need to engineer some other purpose,” Mendelsohn said. “We need to sell the land, use the proceeds, and actually get Independence open. We’ve had that building sitting there since 2022, vacant.
“We literally kicked out people who were paying by the week and then had to help support them because we made them homeless.”
District 3 resident and former city planner Darryl Baker also has criticized the push for homeless housing at Hampton Road, which he says is clearly against the wishes of the neighbors and not the best use for the land.
“The location is in the middle of a Latino neighborhood, next to an elementary school, a branch library, two senior residences, a nature preserve, and Kiest Park,” Baker said. “It sits on 12 prime acres of land that are best suited for single-family homes.”
Timeline for Independence Drive
The NOFA issued earlier this month suggests that applications from interested developers will be accepted through Sept. 13 with pre-submission meetings set for July 30 and Aug. 27. Site tours are planned Aug. 1 and Aug. 9.
The Dallas City Council is tentatively slated to award a contract at its Dec. 11 meeting, with the project to commence in January 2025. If all goes according to plan, permanent supportive housing could be offered at Independence Drive by January 2026.
