Dear Ms. Boudreaux:
To record my public opinion in opposition to locating the
Homeless Shelter on Harry Hines, I have been advised I should contact
you.
I own a single-family home on
**** Dallas, Texas 75220.
We already are overridden with criminal elements in Northwest Dallas.
We have the bulk of the adult bookstores, strip clubs, DART maintenance
facility, soon to have the DART Rail Yard, rogue bars on Harry Hines and
Denton Drive.
We also have one of the highest crime areas in the city.
There are some 10,000 plus apartments north of Northwest Highway and south of
Walnut Hill, east of Denton Drive and
west of Marsh Lane. Approximately
100,000 people living in this area. Apartment
managers allow multiple families to occupy a single apartment. I know this
for a fact because Park Place Apartments is directly behind my home,
and I see how many people are in a single apartment. Most of these people are
low-income.
Last year, we had numerous murders in
NW Dallas (including several vagrants), not to
mention the recent murders and shootings that have occurred since the
beginning of this year.
The police cannot enforce the vagrant ordinances today, and
the vagrants harass us at every street corner. One
area in particular is the intersection of Harry Hines and Northwest Highway,
which I cross daily to work.
There are usually homeless
people on the corner harassing working people begging for money. This
intersection is just one block north of the Northwest Police Substation.
As
a Northwest Dallas homeowner, I am insulted that our elected officials want to
put all the crime related elements in our
neighborhoods.
We have thousands of children in a very limited geographic area and cannot
have these children exposed to any additional criminal elements.
Studies have been done and found that a majority of the homeless are either
mentally ill and are repeat criminals. The logical location for these people
is next to Lew Sterrett.
I
work in Fort Worth and quite frankly am tired of traveling
66 miles per day to give my tax dollars to these street bums.
What the council and mayor must do is mandate vagrancy ordinances be strictly
enforced where the homeless will know they are not welcome in Dallas.
I suggest the Mayor and council take the rail over to Fort Worth and meet with
the Mayor and council in Fort Worth to see what they are doing right. Fort
Worth does not have this issue downtown or anywhere else I have been in Fort
Worth. If money is an issue I will be glad to buy them a round trip ticket.
In
closing, I expect elected officials in the city
comply with those of us who elected them and refuse to move the homeless to
Harry Hines.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Perry
