CityWalk: A Good Example?

Over at Unfair Park (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/04/what.php#comments;) there is quite a discussion going on about the proposed EVERgreen Residences located at 3800 Willow near Exposition Park. I’m going to try to stay out of this discussion—for once it’s nice not to be on the firing line—but I do have to say that it’s both sad and hilarious that almost every speaker at the public hearing last night began with something like, “I’m in favor of affordable housing, but [fill in with reasons why it shouldn’t be in his or her neighborhood].

One encouraging comment is set forth below:

Billy MacLeod says:

These type of developments help to end the problems associated with homelessness, they are the final piece of a very complicated process. So, the idea of a 100 bed SRO (Single Room Occupancy) facility in an urban is a net positive not a net negative.

Ending homelessness at the individual level is a long process; that process called "The Continuum of Care". It includes getting people documentation, medical treatment, addiction treatment, psychological treatment, comprehensive life skills training, and much more help than I could mention here. My point is that it is only at the end of that long process when the success stories qualify for SRO's.

The people who enter SRO's are the champions of the system; by that time they are on their way up and off of the streets. More important to this story is at that point, these formerly homeless individuals, are eager to work and save and change their lives for the better. Dallas is short over 1300 SRO's today, and the end result of that shortage is the people who have completed their treatment, and their therapy, and who get on their meds...ultimately end up back on the streets going backwards.

I applaud the efforts of the neighborhood to defend their turf, and mind you these great people are leaders in the community, but with a little more research, they may end up be in favor of this badly needed resource. I would simply ask them to have a little faith, just look at the new City Walk@Akard (two blocks away from the new Arts District) in Downtown Dallas as a great example of how SRO's pose no problem to any community. Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 14 2010 @ 6:52PM

This is just what we wanted to do—convince people that permanent supportive housing can be a plus, not a minus, for neighborhoods. Now we’ve just got to convince a lot more people.

As always, if you would like to see what we are doing, come visit me at CityWalk. My number is on our website and any of us would be happy to show you around.