Irish wisdom, delivered and received

Recently, John Greenan, Executive Director of the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation, traveled to Ireland to present a paper at the Second International Housing First Conference at the University of Limerick.   No doubt, John represented us well with this presentation. 

While he was away, he sent me an email that made me think  (John's like that continually!).  Here's just a part of what he communicated to me: 

. . . going to the Housing First conference made me realize just how much we are doing. Combined, CitySquare and Central Dallas CDC are housing more formerly homeless people than any European country except France.

The Cottages themselves are a bigger project than any countries but France and Belgium have taken on.

France has now managed to house 600 homeless people for two years--after a full two-year planning process with real experts in the field--people with doctorates in the social sciences and psychology and the full support of the French government (which in France means a  lot). And the only reason the French were able to do so much is because their national health system is so robust that they didn't have to bring on or pay for additional support services. All they had to do was find the people and put them in apartments with vouchers. . . .

Actually, Denmark is doing a project for twelve homeless men, but that's it. Ireland thinks it has a terrible problem because Dublin, which is almost exactly the same size as Dallas, has 100 "rough sleepers" (the European term for unsheltered homeless people). We had almost three times that number in Tent City alone before it was taken down.

I understand John's point, and am encouraged by it.

But, there is something else here:  a troubling comparison.  European nations experience nothing near the terrible scale of our homeless population in the U. S. 

Why is that?

I'm sure there are contextual complexities that I don't understand.  However, it seems clear that European nations do a much, much better job at prevention than we do in this country.  Many of the factors that topple individuals and families into homelessness just aren't present in France. 

Why do you suppose this is true?  I

n large part Europe does better at preventing homelessness from ever happening because of things like: 

Universal health care

Mental health services

Living wages

Housing supports

Worker's leave benefits

Much of our hard work on housing development would not be necessary if we as a people decided to put in place systems of protection and support designed to assist and benefit neighbors who need a hand up, back onto the road to success.

Lots to think about here.

HighPoint Family Living

The HighPoint Family Living development will celebrate its grand opening in late August!

The multi-family complex, the latest in the portfolio of our sister organization, the Central Dallas Community Developmnet Corporation, offers great high quality housing for families and individuals.

Congratulations to John Greenan and his team.

And, a big thank you to Bank of America CDC, our partners in this great endeavor.

Drive by the development at 414 W. Louisiana Avenue here in Dallas.
 

"Tent City" and human dignity

CityWalk witness

Affordable Downtown Dallas: “I Believe in This Project,” Says CityWalk @ Akard Penthouse Owner

by Joanna England
 

 Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect new developments.

When Andrew Foster bought his 15th floor penthouse at 511 N. Akard, he began the 7 month process of completely gutting the former commercial space. The building, which is the one of the few affordable apartment buildings in downtown Dallas,  includes permanent supportive housing for the formerly homeless. It was built in 1958 to house the headquarters of the Relief and Annuity Board of the Baptist General Convention, but today it has been transformed into something much more vibrant and useful.

“I love the space and I love downtown,” Foster said. “Downtown is a really exciting place to be right now.”

Read more.
 

Fair weather update: Cottages' services buildings

The Cottages' service buildings now coming up!

 Progress every day. . .

Images: Cottages progress report

As I write, rain falls softly on ground at The Cottages at Hickory Crossing. . .AGAIN! 

Hopefully, the shower will pass without bringing another halt to the project.  Since beginning, we've lost about two months to snow and rain and mud! 

But, we're making progress on building this special neighborhood for 50 of our neighbors who have no place to call "home" today.  That will change very soon.  My anxiousness relates to the delay the weather causes these new residents. 

The photos that follow do document our progress, especially to those who follow this project closely. The community services building remains but a skeleton.  The Cottages community sits just across Malcolm X from CitySquare's Opportunity Center.

 

Cottages "portfolio" update

Photos below: 1-2) floor systems being built--Cottages with private bath and full kitchen 3) foam insulation being applied to flooring systems 4) flooring systems place 50 Cottages together in tight-knit community 5) CitySquare's new Opportunity Center located just across the street from new housing 6-7) insulation pumped to houses ensures dry and efficient climate control 8) more Cottages to be placed on open spaces 9) foundation for community services building in place.

Cottages development showing progress

Soon 50 men and women will occupy the 50 small houses that we are building here in S. Dallas-Fair Park. 

I love seeing dirt fly and shovels turn up new possibilities! 

Cottages at Hickory Crossing Update: Building permits issued, at last!!!

Finally, we've received the building permits to begin construction on The Cottages at Hickory Crossing! 

These 50 homes will house 50 of our "most expensive" homeless neighbors to Dallas County--that is, those who consume the most services at our county hospital, our mental health facilities, our EMS services and our county jail. 

The average cost to Dallas County (not including City of Dallas or non-profit organizations' expenses) to serve a person who is on the streets is $40,000 a year. 

The Cottages project will provide permanent housing with wrap around, supportive services, including quality mental health services, all at a cost of less than $15,000 annually. 

The project will be complete by April 2015.

Regional recognition for The Cottages project!

The Cottages at Hickory Crossing received a great "shout out" in the latest edition of the Corporation for Supportive Housing's Central Region newsletter.

Check the report out right here! 

Cottages get Dallas Morning News endorsement

The following editorial endorsement appeared in this morning's edition of The Dallas Morning News:

Editorial: Project for chronically homeless deserves strong council support

At a time when finances couldn’t be tighter for the city, this newspaper places a high bar on any project that calls for taxpayer assistance. A proposal by the Central Dallas Community Development Corp. for a unique, 50-unit homeless housing project in South Dallas clears that bar with room to spare.

The development group is asking for $500,000 in voter-approved bond money to assist with a $6 million project focused on helping the chronically homeless — those whose persistent mental-health and legal issues help perpetuate their life on the streets. The City Council should have no problem approving this request from the same 2005 bond package that funded Dallas’ main homeless assistance center, The Bridge.

Don’t be fooled by the project’s name, the Cottages at Hickory Crossing, which conjures up images of hickory trees along a serene country road. These efficiency-size homes will be located amid blighted, empty lots and the DART maintenance station where Malcolm X Boulevard intersects with Interstates 30 and 45.

The tract is part of one of the largest, contiguous expanses of vacant property in Dallas’ urban core. This newspaper’s preference has been for a mixed-use development there, capable of luring retailers and urban dwellers across the psychological threshold that divides northern and southern Dallas along I-30. But the economic reality is that no such development will happen anytime soon.

The Central Dallas Community Development Corp. will work closely with CitySquare, the nonprofit previously known as Central Dallas Ministries, to provide not only housing and counseling but also health services and a food pantry for homeless and low-income individuals.

Years ago, another organization quietly tried to build a similar project on Malcolm X, not far from this site. The plan collapsed when local residents learned of it and protested the surreptitious route that its planners took to sneak it into existence. The cold reality is that no one wants to live next door to a facility for the chronically homeless.

John Greenan of the Central Dallas Community Development Corp. says Hickory Crossing came about with full consultation among community members, including on the other side of the freeway in Deep Ellum. There were no major objections, possibly because the site is in such an isolated area.

The project also won strong support from City Council members Pauline Medrano and Carolyn Davis, whose districts will be most affected by it. UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas plans to monitor the facility’s progress under a three-year study to gauge its effectiveness.

Dallas has 600 to 1,000 chronically homeless people. The cost of caring for them, according to some national studies, can range between $35,000 and $150,000 a year. It makes much more sense to give programs like Hickory Crossing a chance to put a dent in those numbers, rather than standing idly by and watching them grow.

The tract bounded by Interstates 30 and 45, Malcolm X and Louise sits largely isolated and has been vacant and blighted for years. A few light industrial businesses share nearby spaces along with the DART maintenance terminal at Malcolm X and Santa Fe. The closest South Dallas residential neighborhood is more than half a mile away, making this location ideal for an urban homeless housing project.

Central Dallas CDC News: Dallas Observer report on Downtown affordable housing

The following most interesting column by Dallas Observer writer, Jim Schutze reveals the something of the growing importance of the work of the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation.  Worth your time if you care about affordable housing in Downtown Dallas. 

Dallas City Hall gets whopped upside the head for its low-income housing policy

By Jim Schutze Thursday, Feb 17 2011

Tell me first. To be a cool place to live, what does downtown Dallas need? Action. Tons and tons of people, not all super-rich, not all homeless, either.

But that's the problem with downtown. Rich people in the towers. Desperadoes in the alleys. Long empty sidewalks between.

For that to change, downtown needs to become affordable to jobsians. Not rich. Not poor. Not white, black or brown. Just people with jobs.

Guess what. I think maybe that door just cracked.

In a small room in the bowels of City Hall at 8:30 in the morning on one of those hard weather days last week, an obscure body voted to change direction on the renovation of a handful of old office towers—known as the Atmos Project.

It was the first hint of a whole new thing, and it only happened because some guys whopped the city upside the head with a two-by-four. I will come back to that, of course, because I know you love head-whoppings.

The important thing is this: The city board, whose name is too long for me to mention yet, voted to put way more subsidized low-rent apartments into the Atmos re-development deal than originally planned.

For decades, Dallas has taken federal funds designed to foster low-income housing downtown and used the money instead to make downtown hotsy-totsy. The result is what you see now—notsy.

Click here to read the entire essay and get to the part about the Central Dallas CDC. . .

Love the new Downtown? Live Downtown!

Want to live in booming, exciting, increasingly active Downtown Dallas? 
But, afraid you can't afford it?

Living on wages under $30,000 annually?  Feel like you're limited to the 'burbs?

Not so fast!

Drop what you are doing and call 214.303-2119. 

Talk to Keith.  He can tell you how to get in on a great move-in deal at CityWalk!

Big deal to us!

It's a huge deal to us!

7-Eleven has engaged us in a 7-year lease for space on the first floor of CityWalk @Akard! 

The store is set to open around Labor Day 2010. 

Jobs.

Retail options.

Service.

All right inside our building.

We're also working on a bakery, a credit union, and a large non-profit consortium creative center. 

The mixed use, mixed income nature of CityWalk makes music in Dallas!

Take a long look at Permanent Supportive Housing

Recently, Dallas Morning News columnist, Steve Blow "investigated" Central Dallas Ministries' (and Central Dallas Community Development Corporation) housing development at 511 N. Akard in Downtown Dallas.  His column hits the streets in this morning's edition of the paper.

Of course, I love what he found, what he reports and what our neighbors, both inside and outside the building, have to say. 

The recent controversy over the Cliff Manor housing plans put forward by the Dallas Housing Authority for their building in North Oak Cliff seems small and foolish in view of our on-the-ground experience with formerly homeless persons who live with the same sorts of challenges. 

I wish the Oak Cliff folks would come over and check out what we're doing here.  We've made an effort to reach out to the folks concerned about redevelopment along Fort Worth Avenue, but they informed us that they weren't interested in a "sales job" and that they knew all about Permanent Supportive Housing.  Hopefully, a more open approach will eventually surface over there. 

Here's what Steve Blow had to say. . .

Downtown condos could allay Oak Cliff residents' fears about 'formerly homeless' living in Cliff Manor

04:43 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

One afternoon last week, I found a shady bench across the street from 511 N. Akard St. in Downtown Dallas. And I sat awhile, watching the activity there.

You know what I saw?

Nothing.

Oh, there was a little bit of coming and going from the building. But none of it was the least bit out of the ordinary.

And I suspect the view outside Cliff Manor will be very much the same, assuming that apartment building also becomes a home for the formerly homeless.

We have certain images in our heads when the word "homeless" is mentioned. None of them are pretty.

But that building I watched – CityWalk@Akard – is working hard to give us some new mental images to go with the phrase "formerly homeless."

"Quiet," "orderly," "inviting" – those are some of the words to describe what I found when I visited inside CityWalk the next day.

CityWalk is a project of Central Dallas Ministries. The 200-unit apartment building opened in April. It has 50 apartments set aside for the formerly homeless. The other 150 are for low-income tenants.

It's a home, but it's also a demonstration project.

To read the entire essay and to access links to recent, related stories click here.

Dallas Observer reports on Grand Opening. . .

Check out the report from The Dallas Observer today. . .

Great media coverage of CityWalk Grand Opening!

We enjoyed great media coverage on last evening's "grand opening" at CityWalk!

Check it out. . .

here. . .

and here.

Possibly more later!  Thanks to all who supported us through this entire process!

Check out article in The Dallas Morning News today about CityWalk@Akard!

Great story by Kim Horner in this morning's edition of The Dallas Morning News concerning our CityWalk development!

Here's how it begins:

Low-income development is changing minds in downtown Dallas

By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News
khorner@dallasnews.com

Skeptics envisioned a skid row when developers first proposed 200 downtown apartments for low-income and formerly homeless residents.

Sharon Denise Tillis, who used to live in a shelter, was among the first to move into CityWalk@Akard, a new low-income housing development. The waiting list has 300 people on it.

But so far, the project, CityWalk@Akard, has not lived up to those fears.

The 15-story apartment building opened just three months ago, and only 10 residents have moved in so far. But neighboring property owners say the project has already improved, rather than hurt, the neighborhood.

To read the full report click here.

Class bias, misplaced fear and permanent housing for the homeless

When Central Dallas Ministries and the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation moved into developing permanent housing for formerly homeless people most people applauded our efforts and our decision.  All of the national research indicated that providing a permanent place for homeless persons to live had dramatic impact on the success and personal stabilzation of the individuals involved.

As I say, most everyone supported our efforts. 

Most, but not all. 

The CityWalk@ Akard project was our first. 

[BTW--The grand opening will be this evening from 4:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.  Even though the building is not quite finished, it will be a grand party.  Mayor Tom Leppert will speak.  Our district's Council Member Angela Hunt will speak.  Other city leaders and supporters of the project will join us.  If you are in Dallas, come on down!]

And not everyone was happy about our plans to develop housing for low-income and formerly homeless tenants. 

Some business leaders expressed concerns.  Everyone maintained their civility, but many discussed the project with us in rather foreboding terms. 

Among those expressing reservations, and in some cases downright fear, were parents and leaders at a nearby private school. 

We worked closely with the school group, even including one of their leaders on our community advisory board.  As we worked through the project, the group's initial opposition waned. 

Of course, in the beginning the group expressed concerns for the safety of the children attending the school because of the presence of low-income and formerly homeless residents in our building. 

While, as a parent and grandparent, I understand those feelings, beneath these concerns lurks a real bias, an ill-informed bias and a fear that in the vast majority of cases is totally misplaced. 

Then, earlier this week I received a copy of the following AP report from my dear friend and pastor, Dr. John Fiedler.  John stood with us in his church (First United Methodist) just around the corner from City Walk and spoke boldly for our project.  He repeated his statement of support before the entire City Council. 

John sent this news report to point up where the real danger may be today when it comes to school children and the extremely poor. 

Read it and let me know what you think.

2 Philly kids face charges in random-attack game
Mar 23 02:35 PM US/Eastern

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Two preteens assaulted a woman walking home through a playground as part of a violent game called "Catch and Wreck," in which children identify targets they think are homeless and then beat and rob them for fun, police said Tuesday.

An 11-year-old boy was arrested Monday night and charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and robbery, Philadelphia police Lt. John Walker said.

A 12-year-old girl was charged shortly after the Friday night attack in southwest Philadelphia. The victim was surrounded by children, then punched and hit with sticks, police said. She suffered minor injuries to her knee and head and delayed seeking medical attention to help police with the investigation.

Police also plan to charge the boy in an attack on a 73-year-old man who was beaten and robbed in the same area on March 13, Walker said. The victim in that assault, Vincent Poppa, suffered a heart attack and remains hospitalized.

A spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams said both children were being charged as juveniles. Their names have not been released.

Investigators believe the assaults are part of a game called "Catch and Wreck," which children in the neighborhood described to them after Friday's attack.

Children told police the game involves pinpointing passers-by they think are homeless and then beating and robbing them for fun, Walker said. The woman who was attacked, however, said she is not homeless.

"We're just hoping it's isolated and that (these arrests) will quickly bring it to a halt," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross, who oversees all field operations for the department, said the recent reports of "Catch and Wreck" were the first the department had gotten.

Celebration of a new home. . .

After over four years we've finally leased the first apartments to formally homeless persons at CityWalk @Akard! 

It's been a long, eventful, instructive journey to say the least.  The building is not quite finished.  We expect all of the housing to be completed by late February.  Some parts of the retail and the 15th floor, market-rate condos will wrap up a bit later.

Central Dallas Ministries will move into our new offices on January 19. 

To say the least, we are excited.  Our new space is compact, efficient, simple, elegant and utilitarian.  I intend to walk the housing floors every day to meet and visit with our new neighbors. 

Personal note:  due to the fact that my new office is about 60% smaller than the office I've occupied for the past 15 years, I am selling a big part of my library.  If you are in Dallas and are interested, contact me.  The sale will be on January 15 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.  The pricing plan on the books is very sophisticated.  Hardbacks $2.00 each.  Paperbacks $1.00 a copy! 

I had to share these photos of our executive team (L to R:  Keith Ackerman, VP of Community Service/COO; yours truly, Gerald Britt, VP for Public Policy and Community Program Development; Steve Palma, CFO and Chief Development Officer), as well as part of our larger administrative team who will occupy the new office space in the building. 

If you live in Dallas, I hope you'll call and set a time to come down to visit.  A grand opening celebration will take place at some point in March.