As you may have heard, the Dallas Housing Authority plans to open 100 apartments at its 180-unit Cliff Manor building on Fort Worth Avenue to longtime homeless people who have mental illnesses and addictions. The agency, which operates public housing throughout Dallas, has 52 vacant units ready at the building and will make the rest of the 100 apartments available as current residents move out, according to MaryAnn Russ, the housing authority’s president and chief executive officer.
Cliff Manor is situated about 2.5 miles from Hampton Hills. Consequently, we won’t be directly impacted by the plan. Moreover, it’s located in City Council District 3, which accounts for District 3 Councilman Dave Neumann’s intense interest in the project. But our neighborhood is not an island. Every Oak Cliff neighborhood connects to another, so we owe it to ourselves to understand the debate and determine what, if any, action we need to take.
As we’ve followed the debate, we’ve learned that opponents to the plan object to it for the following reasons:
- Council 3, which includes parts of West Dallas and North Oak Cliff, already has a disproportionate number of housing authority properties compared to other districts.
- Cliff Manor is less than 200 feet from Stevens Park Elementary School.
- Jobs in Oak Cliff are scarce, so it would be difficult for 100 people to find work in the neighborhood.
- Fort Worth Avenue is undergoing redevelopment and there is some concern that developers could pull out for fear that the change would adversely affect property values.
- There’s no clear “exit strategy” if the plan doesn’t work.
- The quality of the building is outdated, and the neighborhood already has a high amount of crime.
Proponents of the plan make the following points:
- The residents who would move to Cliff Manor are people who’ve done work to prove that they are responsible enough to live on their own with help.
- A full-time caseworker would be on site for them. The housing authority has hired a property manager who also has a background in social work. And all the staff is trained to deal with the particular problems these residents are likely to have.
- There would be zero tolerance for drug abuse or violent crime among residents.
- Properties adjacent to successful permanent supportive housing communities in New York City and Fort Worth have increased in value.
- Homeless people are often misunderstood. Statistics indicate that they are unlikely to be criminals.
