November 11, 2022 – The Dallas Morning News – Sharon Grigsby
For crying out loud, Dallas, you can do better than this.
We don’t expect perfection from a City Hall this big and with this many moving parts. But in what universe is this even acceptable?
Yet another homeless facility has been sprung on an unsuspecting community, this time near Oak Cliff’s Kiest Park and Brashear Elementary.
Despite the multitude of past failures and broken trust — invariably followed by pledges around the horseshoe to do better next time — elected leaders and city staff have learned nothing.
The City Council voted 14-1 in January to spend a portion of the $20 million in homeless housing funds from the 2017 bond for the purchase of a 12-acre complex on South Hampton Road, the site of a closed hospital and adjacent buildings.
The decision was part of council members’ ongoing efforts to put operations in each of their districts to ensure equitable support of unsheltered people across the city.
That’s a worthy goal for a city that’s home to a massive amount of poverty. But not at this location and not through the marginal community outreach that’s occurred so far.
Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold, whose district begins on the Kiest Park side of South Hampton, understood that. She was the lone “no” vote in January, citing inadequate community discussion.
About 200 residents were breathing fire at an Oct. 27 town hall, which the city counts as its third info session regarding the homeless site but which marked the first time many actual neighbors heard about the deal.
Don’t shrug off those voices as a “not in my backyard” crowd; City Hall is in the wrong on this one.
The former hospital complex may be a great facility that was attractively priced, but consider where it sits: Across one street from an elementary campus and the branch library that connects into it, across another from Kiest Park and right next to senior citizen apartments.
The neighborhoods around the the park have struggled to pull themselves up for 30 years, to hold on and strengthen this often-forgotten part of Oak Cliff south of Illinois Avenue and west of I-35E.
While many of these communities are among the most racially diverse in the city, the residential streets closest to the planned homeless site are made up of established working-class Hispanic families.
City Council member Casey Thomas, whose District 3 includes the South Hampton property, said the Office of Homeless Solutions can’t turn back the clock, but they can start over on community engagement.
That means leading a series of large, patient discussions seeking public input on what kind of homeless services can coexist here.
If trust can’t be re-established, this sore spot will fester long after Thomas leaves office in June.
Part of the city’s defense is that property deals aren’t publicly discussed before purchase. But that’s missing the point, given that we have a recent success story for how this coulda-shoulda been done.
In Far North Dallas, considered prime NIMBY-land by many outsiders, council member Cara Mendelsohn won residents’ approval for a shelter for homeless families that Family Gateway has since operated in harmony with the surrounding neighborhood since 2021.
Before locations were discussed, Mendelsohn and homeless experts shared information with constituents for many months in virtual meetings, town halls and newsletters.
Mendelsohn’s consistent and compassionate message was that District 12 — like all the others — must create a site for the homeless, so let’s talk about what we want.
Only when questions were answered and parameters were set did talk turn to the purchase of the former Candlewood Suites, a sound wall away from the Bush Turnpike and a location far more appropriate than the South Hampton Road site.
Thomas says there’s still time for Oak Cliff residents to provide input.
He told me that as a result of concerns voiced at the October meeting, he’ll suggest the site be used for permanent supportive housing and services for formerly homeless senior citizens or single women with children.
He assured me that he knew of the location’s proximity to the school, library, park, senior housing and many nearby homes when he voted yes in January.
“I don’t have concerns given the populations we expect to serve here,” he said. “People have this perception of a walk-up shelter and this will not be a walk-up shelter.”
He also noted that all of the 100 or so residents housed there will be carefully vetted.
When I reached out to Christine Crossley, director of the Office of Homeless Solutions, I was told Thomas, who is also the chairman of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee, would handle all communications on this issue.
The many residents I talked with about the tense three-hour-plus community meeting left feeling that the message Thomas and City Manager T.C. Broadnax sent that night was the deal was happening whether they liked it or not.
Adding to the frustration, although the city had equipment on hand for Spanish-only speakers, many people in attendance were not aware of that. Handouts were provided in both English and Spanish, but those ran out during the standing-room-only meeting at the Kiest Park Recreation Center gym.
JR Huerta, the founder of Dallas Youth Sports, which uses Kiest Park almost daily for many of its games, has long been a supporter of helping people in need, as evidenced by his 19-year athletics operation.
Huerta is keeping an open mind but he acknowledged he’s worried, especially when he considers the homeless individuals already camping in the park.
“Maybe it won’t create more problems, but we just don’t know,” he said. “The plan has not really been forthcoming to the community.”
Antoinette Gonzales, who has lived in the Kiestwood neighborhood for almost 10 years, told me the meeting was every bit as contentious as she had feared.
“It felt like a perfunctory exercise in placating a community unhappy about lack of transparency and information,” she said.
Gonzales understands why the property was attractive, “but not for this purpose at this location, where youth sports, a library and elementary are next door.”
Concerns at Brashear Elementary and communication breakdowns between City Hall and Dallas ISD are their own hornet’s nest in this controversy.
Angela Pouncil, Brashear’s PTO president and mother of a fifth and first grader, first heard about the city’s purchase of the hospital site early this year.
Pouncil and other parents don’t want their kids going to school across the street from a homeless operation. If they have no choice, they need answers on security, especially with everyone already on edge regarding campus safety.
For example, Brashear is connected through a secured set of doors to the Hampton-Illinois Branch Library and classes visit there regularly. “Will this have to stop because of the homeless facility just across the street?” Pouncil wondered.
She emailed Thomas’ office April 12 on behalf of all Brashear parents to ask for more information and requested the council member speak at an upcoming PTO meeting.
Pouncil got no response. When she told Thomas at the recent community meeting about the PTO’s invitation, he said his staff never made him aware of the request.
The PTO president said her takeaway from the town hall was, “We don’t care what you want but we are having this meeting to try to shut you up.’”
Amy Smith, who has a third grader at Brashear, agreed. “They skirted so many issues at the meeting,” she told me.
“Yes, we need services for everyone in this city, including those most in need, but this is not the right spot,” she said.
DISD trustee Joyce Foreman, who represents this part of the city, and Thomas have vastly different points of view on communication breakdowns — and each provided documentation to back up their arguments.
Foreman maintains that Thomas committed early in the process to keep her in the loop but only when constituents notified her about the October meeting did she learn how far down the road the plan already is.
She subsequently reached out to city officials to share her concerns. “Of course I was upset that the city had no conversation with myself or Dallas ISD,” she told me. “The students’ safety comes first for me.”
Thomas told Foreman in text messages early this year that he planned a full community engagement process. “Nothing has been decided on what would be at the facility,” he wrote. “I will personally let you know once the recommendation process begins.”
He also encouraged her to reach out with any questions.
I’ll tell you more in my next column about how we got to this impasse, including details from the work group appointed by council members but seemingly boxed out of having constructive suggestions heard.
It’s true that voters approved $20 million in the 2017 bond election to fund housing options for the homeless. But no one would have voted yes for what we’ve seen in Oak Cliff.
Dallas residents know we need appropriate solutions for our unhoused neighbors. The South Hampton site is not that. It’s Textbook 101 on how to disenfranchise and alienate your constituents.
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