David Tuthill
                             

12/14/06  Over Working Poor and Dallas Homeowners.

DallasArena.com readers know I am not the most sympathetic person when it comes to street bums.  To the other extreme, I have a real weakness for the plight of the working poor and modest income communities. 

Way back to the days I was on the Plan Commission in the 90's, I saw much more concern about the drug addicts and drunks than for the plight of the working poor.  Even among the "homeless", there was less concern for mothers with children than for single male addicts and drunks.  There were certainly less facilities for down and out women with children than for male street bums.

There was and still is a racket of grant-seeking do-gooders who make a living running shelters and applying for public monies to fund their operations.  Despite all their noble assertions and protestations of any self-dealing, it's their job, how they pay their bills.  They need an endless supply of street bums to justify their industry.  They also need new plants for their business.

This story on Dallas Blog really ticked me off. 

HOMELESS CHARITIES BID FOR LAKE HIGHLANDS PROPERTY Posted on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at 06:36AM by Caroline Walker

Three homeless assistance charities and two City of Dallas agencies have submitted proposals to acquire the 5.2 acre site located at 10031 Northwest Highway (between Audelia and Ferndale Roads), currently in use as the Jules E. Muchert United States Army Reserve Center, according to a December 4 memo to the Mayor and City Council written by Assistant City Manager AC Gonzales.    Located in Councilman Bill Blaydes? District 10, the Muchart ARC currently consists of a two-story, brick building containing approximately 30,000 square feet with a 6,000 square foot building in the back that was used as a shop. The property is being disposed of as part of the base sell-off plan that began during the Clinton Administration.    The federal government appointed the City of Dallas to act as Local Redevelopment Authority, charged with soliciting and screening proposals from various groups which fit the criteria for approved redevelopment of the site. The deadline for interested parties to submit proposals was September 29, 2006.    City agencies which have expressed interest in the property include the Dallas County Sheriff?s Department, for use as training facilities; and Dallas Parks and Recreation, for use by various Park and Recreation divisions including Community Programming, Youth Services, and Regional & District Operations.    Three 501c(3) Non-Profit agencies have put in to redevelop the site for homeless assistance related services, a use both authorized and strongly encouraged under Title V of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987.    Homeward Bound, Inc. would use the Muchert building for counseling, education and rehabilitation services, while LifeNet Community Behavioral Healthcare wants to convert the building to Single Room Occupancy housing and support services for the homeless population.    Central Dallas Ministries has submitted plans to build thirty to -fifty ?Katrina cottages? plus a community center, to serve fifty formerly homeless persons.    According to City Councilmember Gary Griffith, whose District 9 is adjacent to the location, city staff is going to recommend that Muchert ARC be acquired for use by Dallas Parks and Recreation, which has demonstrated a compelling need for the space. Its small facility at neighboring Flagpole Hill is designated a historic landmark, and can?t be expanded. This past October, Dallas Parks & Recreation lost two more nearby facilities when White Rock Lake?s Dreyfuss Club and another Parks & Recreation building on Doran Circle were destroyed by fire.    Councilman Griffith pointed out that the donation of the Muchert Building to the City of Dallas would preclude the need to allocate additional City funds for new Parks and Recreation facilities in the White Rock area.    But Central Dallas Ministries? Larry James disagrees. ?To the best of my knowledge, it?s the intention of the program that the site benefit in some way the people we have in mind,? he said yesterday. ... The feeling among City Council members and the Mayor was that it would be better to create smaller housing developments across the City?s districts rather than locate one densely populated project in a single district, Mr. James indicated.    Central Dallas Ministries? 200-unit ?City Walk? project at 511 N. Akard, now underway, will provide 50 units for the homeless, with the balance going to low-income residents.    The City also plans a $10 million Homeless Assistance facility near the Farmers Market that would provide a full-service resource center for the homeless population. ... ?I know that residents sometimes view us as crazy tree-huggers,? added Larry James, ?but we?re not in the homeless shelter business. The Muchert Armory proposal is for permanent resident housing ? not for transients. In fact, it would be a gated community, with a lot of green space?My message to Lake Highlands is, ?do your part?.?

That is so typical of a social worker who puts his plans to accommodate his clients (and the justification for his industry's existence) above the safety and quality of life of homeowners in Lake Highlands.  I wrote the following response to the above article:

With the devastation that apts have caused to Lake Highlands and Northwest Dallas, I would say to Mr. Larry James and other bleeding hearts like him that Lake Highlands has done its part already.

Like Lake Highlands homeowners, Northwest Dallas homeowners have experienced crime and mayhem caused by problematic people from the glut of apartments surrounding our neighborhoods. To add 20 or 40 street people to the mix would be an unfair burden on homeowners who already have to pay for private security.

When is anyone going to put law-abiding citizens first in this town?

Hate to say it, but Gary Griffith is finally doing something right by trying to get that site for park and recreation use.

Of course, somebody didn't understand my reference to Northwest Dallas (where I live) with my comments about Lake Highlands.  Both areas on opposite sides of the city are saturated with over-populated and aging apartment buildings that are overwhelming our schools and adjacent single-family neighborhoods.  Of course, Mr. James and other grant-seeking professional street bum enablers don't care about the impact of their industry on hard-working homeowners who are already victimized by problematic people from the glut of apartments in Lake Highlands.  Adding a homeless shelter to the mix in Lake Highlands would negate all the work the community has done in the past several years to improve the situation in North East Dallas.

Do-gooders only care about those who are dependent on their benevolence.   They have no concern for the working poor who just want to manage to scrimp by on their own.  There are 100 families in the Ash Creek Mobile Home Park who are going to be forced out of their homes because some uppity newcomers don't like the look of the mobile homes and the park itself.

Once again, Shakedown Leo Chaney is doing the Devil's work.  A few years ago, he tried to seize some property from a South Dallas church.  They had acquired the property for expansion of their church.  Shakedown had another group of folk who are his political allies that wanted the church's land.  The Church fought back because they had some members with the right connections to protect the Church's interest.  The poor mobile homeowner/residents of Ash Creek MHP don't have the same clout.  They have a lot of us wishing them well and cursing the uppity newcomers who are forcing them out of their homes, but they can't stand up to Shakedown Chaney and his new buddies.

As usual, Betty Culbreath nails the issue quite succinctly:

Leo Chaney Sold Out Ash Creek Mobile Home Park Monday, December 11, 2006

Once upon a time people talked about Leo Chaney, and I was on the front line defending him.   I have been on the front line fighting for a few people who turned out just as bad as People said they were.  I may not see it for a long time, but when I get it, I get it!    Chaney has put about 100 people on the street who live in the Ash Creek Mobile Home Park.  The Park has been there for 50 years in the same place.  Never did the City of Dallas use code enforcement to make the owner fix up anything.  The mobile homes belong to the residents and most cannot be moved.      You see Leo Chaney allowed the City Attorney -- in fact he encouraged the City Attorney to file criminal charges on the owner.  Just as he did with Mr. Lee Bilal. (S.Dallas Theater in Tug-of-War).  Mr. Bilal went to jail and to his death.  This owner surrendered and was forced to close the Park while the zoning was pending before the City Plan Commission.   We need a revolution in Dallas.    Elected Officials who can use their Power to move people from their homes with no remorse should be ----.    The reason these people are being mistreated is that new homeowners in $300,000 homes do not want to look at the mobile home park.  The mobile home park was there when the new homes were built.  Chaney thinks the people in the $300,000 homes will vote for him for higher office.  Did it occur to him that if they do not like poor white and Hispanic people why would they vote for a poor black one?      Mr. Chaney will need to answer to his God for this one.

We do need a revolution in Dallas, but I doubt that we will get it.  It's more likely that things are going to get worse and not likely to get better.  It may be the same in all cities, but a street bum harassing people Downtown has more people trying to help them out and keep them out of the rain than the working poor in Dallas. 

No Christmas Miracle for Ash Creek, looks like

For the last year or so, the plight of the Ash Creeek Mobile Home Park ? a low-income enclave on Highland Road, between Interstate 30 and White Rock Lake, that?s been around since the 1940s ? has been the source of much contention and controversy: The city wants the thing gone, claiming it?s a wasteland of crime and code violations, while the residents claim the city merely wants to turn it over to developers itching to cover the park with McMansions and sprawl. In December 2005, Jim wrote in the paper version of Unfair Park: ?The real appeal of the Ash Creek Mobile Home Park is simple: $192 a month. After buying one of the mobile homes for a few grand, a person or a family can live here for two bills a month. Where else can you do that? Just about nowhere, which is just about where many of these people will wind up.?    In the year since Jim?s original story, the tale of Ash Creek has thrived on the local blogosphere: Sharon Boyd?s DallasArena.com has run several pieces (among them, this one) calling for Ash Creek to be saved, while Mike Orren at Pegasus News has posted on his site several pieces (like this one) in which the park?s described as a trash-strewn eyesore he?d like removed from the neighborhood in which he?s a member of the crime watch.    Well, this morning, the Save Ash Creek faction sent out a press release containing a previously unpublished letter it says it sent to council member Leo Chaney at the end of November. That missive is after the jump ? along with another one that appears to put the final nail in the park?s coffin.    Chaney, in whose District 7 the mobile home park sits, is either doing nothing to help its residents or promising them everything, depending upon whom you believe.  ...

How can something like this happen?  The same way all those homeowners were forced out of their homes in Arlington for the greed of that Arkansas Freak, Jerry Jones.

It's hard to stay involved in Dallas politics because I don't see things improving no matter what happens next May.  A terrible wrong has been done and is being done to those people who live in Ash Creek Mobile Home Park.  It is being done because a city councilman is trying to curry favor with people who will never support him.

A terrible wrong will be done to the residents of Lake Highlands if Larry James is successful in expanding his street bum service business to the Jules E. Muchert United States Army Reserve Center.  If recent history is an indicator, Lake Highlands homeowners will have as little sway with their Councilman Bill Blaydes as the Ash Creek mobile home owners have had with Shakedown Leo Chaney.

Yes, I sound like the Grinch who stole Christmas, a heartless Republican who doesn't care about the down and out street bums.  I don't care about them.  I care about people who are TRYING.  People who have all sorts of obstacles put in their path, but they keep TRYING.  They accept that life has dealt them a poor hand and they are not going to live in one of the McMansions, but they keep TRYING.

The uppity folks in the Ferguson Road Initiative and the McMansions overlooking Ash Creek Mobile Home Park probably give money to the street bum industry leaders like Larry James.  They may even send their kids to do some feeding chores on holidays.  They certainly do not want those street bums setting up shop near their fancy new gated community.  They didn't even want to have to look at the way some working poor people live, people who are TRYING.

Now, some poor, working people are going to be forced out of their homes, but Larry James, et al are out demanding that every square inch of unused government buildings be assigned to them for accommodating street bums, who ARE NOT TRYING.

Here's an idea.  Since the Ash Creek Mobile Home Park is going to be vacant in February, 2007, the city can use its imminent domain to take that land and turn it into a street bum shelter.  It's got most everything touted by the people who pushed for the old Health South facility as the city's home - creeks, open area for those who won't come inside, public transportation.  Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

This will be just like in Arlington, where Grandpa Jones got to force hundreds of people from their homes to build a new football stadium -- for the common good.  The people who lost their homes in Arlington may not appreciate the grandeur of the Arkansas Freak's vision, but everyone else is happy.  The residents of Ash Creek Mobile Home Park may not appreciate losing their homes because some uppity newcomers don't like looking down at them, but everyone will feel better knowing the former mobile home park will be a home for street bums. 

Don't know about you, but I'm feeling more Christmasy already.

sb