City Hall Roundup: More Real Estate Troubles and a Bike Plan
Share News:
There was plenty of municipal business going on at Dallas City Hall this past week, even for a shortened four-day schedule.
As previously reported by CandysDirt.com, Memorial Day weekend caused a little bit of a splash when a busted toilet flush valve caused some flooding on a few floors at 1500 Marilla St. Some meetings were relocated, but otherwise officials went about their work.
Here’s some of the news that came out of City Hall the last several days:
Voucher Scarcity Threatens Homeless Housing Project
A permanent supportive housing project in North Oak Cliff could be in jeopardy because of a lack of uncommitted vouchers, many of which are currently going to the city’s Street to Home program that focuses on shutting down encampments and connecting their inhabitants to services and housing.
Officials bought a former hotel called the Miramar at 1950 Fort Worth Ave. in late 2020 to convert into supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. Now, more than four years later, the project is facing headwinds due to a budget shortfall at the Dallas Housing Authority. Adding more uncertainty, Congress is considering steep budget cuts to the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and a reconfiguration of its housing voucher programs.
Catholic Charities, which signed on to operate the project at 1950 Fort Worth Ave., said it could not go forward without a contractual voucher commitment, according to Darwin Wade, assistant director for the Housing & Community Development Department.
“The voucher situation is critical to the success of the project, so we are kind of in a holding pattern right now until we can get concrete information from DHA and Housing Forward, along with our HUD partners in D.C.,” said Wade at Tuesday’s meeting of the Housing & Homelessness Solutions Committee.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) expressed frustration with the prospect of the project falling apart over a lack of vouchers.
“Who determined that the vouchers should go to Street to Home as opposed to the way we used to do it, with the agencies giving out vouchers to homeless who had followed the rules, gotten a job, and were ready for that next step?” Mendelsohn said.
Office of Homeless Solutions Director Christine Crossley said the city and its continuum of care partners have been following HUD guidance and best practices, which advise administering vouchers to homeless individuals who have the highest barriers to housing.
“There’s no way that we have sat on this Miramar property since December 2020 and invested all these millions of dollars and it’s going to sit empty because there’s no vouchers,” Mendelsohn said. “I know that I will be involved with bringing forward some sort of resolution that says those vouchers need to go to people who will live at the Miramar when it’s ready to open.”
Officials had hoped that the project would open by May 2026, but Wade acknowledged there would almost certainly be a delay because of the current voucher situation.
Did the City Buy Another Bad Property?
During a Tuesday meeting of the Government Performance & Financial Management Committee, staff seemed to catch some council members off-guard by proposing that a city-owned property previously identified as a potential site for homeless services should instead be a fire station.
The property in question, 4150 Independence Dr. in Council Member Zarin Gracey’s District 3, was an extended-stay hotel before the city bought it during the COVID-19 pandemic. While officials initially thought it would make a good location for affordable housing and permanent supportive housing for the homeless, problems with the building and some community pushback have caused the project to languish.
Structural issues and water pipe leaks were also discovered that would require some $30 million in spending to remediate. Perhaps with those headaches in mind, staff told the committee that Dallas Fire-Rescue was interested in the site for a new fire station.
“The area that this building is in was roughly 30 seconds behind some other places in the city as it relates to response times, so they thought that this would be a favorable location and would aid in improvements to response times to citizens in this area,” said Assistant City Manager Donzell Gipson.
Mendelsohn and Council Member Paula Blackmon (District 9) both expressed skepticism over the idea, with the former suggesting staff was trying to avoid admitting that the property’s purchase was a mistake and the latter likening the change-up to taking lemons and making lemonade.
“I just wonder if we are unwilling to say publicly that we bought another bad property and we’re somehow making this into a fire station that’s even more expensive than our mistake, because not only then are we taking it off the tax rolls, we are then going to operate it every single year,” said Mendelsohn.
The matter might get brought up at City Hall in the upcoming meeting of the Public Safety Committee on June 3.
Officials Adopt New Bike Plan
Council members approved Dallas Bike Plan 2025 this past Wednesday, which will serve as a strategic framework to grow the city’s bike network, advance its transportation goals, and make Dallas a more bike-friendly locale.
In a nutshell, the plan outlines phased project priorities that will be acted on as additional funding becomes available. It also calls for the creation of a permanent bicycle advisory committee, which will be established in the coming months.
The first phase of the plan, to be executed in the next five years, includes completing currently funded projects and some high-priority, lower-cost unfunded projects that build out more bike lines and infrastructure in accordance with the multiple rounds of community engagement efforts undertaken by City Hall staff.
“City Council has made a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change. One of the ways of doing that is to reduce the number of people driving in cars or by themselves,” said Council Member Omar Narvaez (District 6), drawing the connection between the city’s stated environmental priorities and the bike plan.
The League of American Bicyclists designated Dallas a bronze-level “Bicycle Friendly Community” earlier this year.
According to the bike plan, there are some 148 miles of bicycle network across Dallas proper. An additional 543 miles are recommended in the plan, of which only around 68 are currently funded.
