Plea for support of homeless housing

The City of Dallas along with the Dallas Housing Authority and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance has a goal of developing 700 units of permanent supportive housing by 2014. It is the general consensus that permanent supportive housing is the answer to our city’s homeless problem. The Dallas Housing Authority has been moving forward with plans to place the 700 people who often suffer from chronic homelessness, abuse, past legal problems, addiction and/or mental disorders, but they continue to run into roadblocks in the form of neighborhood opposition. It seems one of the DHA’s bigger problems has been a failure to communicate well with the residents and homeowners living around proposed supportive housing projects. Central Dallas Ministries, with this recently released video below, is calling for public support of PSH, which will probably get more people on board than the DHA’s more recent approach, which entails planning a project and then springing it on the community — that approach seems to have resulted in viral fear and unwillingness to cooperate (see Lake Highlands and Oak Cliff as examples). Here’s the video:

Posted by: Christina Hughes Babb on August 12th, 2010 in All Blog Posts, City Hall, Development
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Voice of Reason

“It is the general consensus that permanent supportive housing is the answer to our city’s homeless problem”

Clearly it is not the “consensus” amoung the population at large or the neighborhoods. Nor is there any evidence that throwing vast amounts of $ at this problem fixes it. In the video one of the directors (of the many non-profits that represent the homeless) makes the comment that 85% of the residents remain in their free homes for one year. One year is not permanent.
Iheartdallas

@Voice of Reason: No, one year is not permanent, but by giving someone currently living on the street a home for a year, my guess is that they would never want to go back to the streets. I’m no an expert; just someone who has compassion for the many people who have no place to go, and I believe this is a great start to helping get people off the streets. What’s your idea?
Glenn

Once again, people that don’t live near where the housing will be placed are trying to convince people that do that it’s a “good thing”. I’m sure every one of these people is a fine upstanding citizen. Sure.

There will always be homeless people. There have always been homeless people! Why does anyone think that doing this is going to change anything? When I lived in Waco and would help out with homeless church groups we had people that would offer housing and jobs to the homeless of Waco. Hardly any accepted the offers.

Not everyone that is homeless wants to NOT be homeless.
Liz Luthans

Providing a person supportive housing means giving that person a place to shower before a job interview and a phone number for a prospective employer to call. It’s a safe place to sleep at night. It may be the first place that person has had to call his or her own ever. Supportive housing is a home for someone who has paid his or her “debt to society” and is trying to rejoin the community as a contributing member.If not in LH, where? All the good characteristics of our neighborhood ,such as our strong sense of community and family values,are exactly why some supportive housing members could thrive in LH. But by the grace of God go I.
Susan, DallasTX

All I know is that after they tore down the apartments behind my house at Plano Road and Walnut Hill intersection, the crime, noise and trash levels have gone way down, my garage never gets ‘hit and run, and there are no ‘shoot-outs’ with the police. The assisted living center is a great neighbor! I wish they’d tear every apartment down in Lake Highlands and rebuild half of them back again.
Ellen Raff

Response to Glenn — it is not so black and white that all people who live near the proposed supporting housing areas oppose it. I live near Woodside and I can see how it might be a good thing to have someone move in who has been screened by a gov’t agency, is known to police, and has support, vs. someone who has been barely screened by the apartment owners.

I was plent NIMBY about the WalMart at Forest/Abrams, and sadly it is now a hot spot for crime after dark. But my point is that you cannot paint us all in the nearby vicinity with one broad stroke. There are pros and cons, please give credit to people in the neighborhood to discuss the issues.