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10/07/04 Harry Hines site still being
pushed for Homeless Day Spa.
Tom Dunning (former mayoral candidate and current
Homeless Czar) and the Committee to address homelessness and where the
new Homeless Assistance Center should be located in Dallas meet
every Tuesday afternoon (3:00-6:00 pm) at
Dallas City Hall.
These meetings are open to the general public.
The October 5th meeting ended with a frightening
revelation. Mr. Dunning said
he had been informed that North Dallas and the Harry Hines location had 8 votes
on the City Council. He also warned the
committee members that they will be lobbied hard to take tours of the Harry
Hines site.
Judith Anne Sturrock who represents the nine Downtown Developers has even gone
so far as to threaten a Service Provider that her group would
open direct competition aimed at them if the
organization did not agree to move. |
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James Northrup:
Help me out here. If James
Waghorne, ex homeless person, is now an advocate
for the homeless, what is he advocating as a
solution ? What's
his alternative ?
Since most buses go downtown,
wouldn't any site outside of downtown reduce overall homeless traffic on
buses?
I hate to break it to him, but when
he was a bum he could have caught a bus downtown to anywhere in the City,
including North Dallas.
Maybe he should go back to being
homeless, he might have been better at it.
We can whine about it, or we can do
something about it.
Drive down Cadiz
at night and you decide. There needs to be a solution, no more
whining.
Whoever comes up with a solution
outside of the shadow of the Central Library, City Hall or the Convention
Center wins. |
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I'm normally not worried about what I hear except that these things are
being confirmed from other resources in City Hall and the experts who work with
the homeless are now truly concerned. In
addition, Salvation Army has openly pushed for Harry Hines and
North Dallas.
Questions from committee members asking Downtown shelters if they would move to
North Dallas also stirred the realization that this group will stop at nothing
to make the millions expected from the sale of the Harry Hines location and the
perceived benefits of forcing 3,000 homeless
individuals into North Dallas, 1,100 of which will be "Chronic Homeless".
I hope all citizens in North Dallas understand just how effective these Downtown
lobbyists have been in their efforts.
Councilmember Bill Blaydes and his
constituents will feel the impact.
The homeless people will travel bus 486 and 428 setting up campsites
along Greenville, Skillman and Forest Lane, White Rock Lake area,
which has seen a drop of homeless individuals will once again be inundated.
Yet, Mr. Blaydes has stated he would vote for
the Harry Hines site even though it will have a negative impact on the Community
he represents. In fact, Districts
2,6,9,10,11,12,13,14, all will be affected
in a very profound and negative way.
It will impact Mr. Blaydes and the other
districts I mention because two methods of
travel are used by the homeless. Walking
and Bus.
When I stayed at the Salvation Army on Harry Hines, a group of us
would get bus passes and
jump on 428. We did this to get sleep since
sleeping in a shelter on the floor is near impossible, and
this was a long bus trip which gave us an extra hour to sleep. The trip
took us along N.W. Hwy all the way to Garland. Some
of homeless guys found
places to camp along the trip. Skillman and
Abrams area, Greenville, then spreading down to Forest Ln.
NW Dallas will be hardest hit with a Harry Hines
Homeless Shelter because of the foot traffic, but all of North Dallas
will be open hunting grounds for homeless to find new campsites.
Understanding that 48% of the homeless find the
shelters too restrictive with their cost or religious
practices.
I am a Christian and was a Christian long before I became homeless because of
Major Depressive Disorder. I didn't need services
except for my Sunday worship.
Anyhow, Bus routes 428 and 486 will become major traffic routes for the homeless
along with the foot traffic. I find it ironic
that a cantina has opened next to the HH site. Just
a small vision of things to come.
Downtown Developers like to talk about lost property taxes because of lost
values, but I can assure you the property values in all of North Dallas will be
impacted. As of today, due to aggressive
outreach efforts in North Dallas, 38 people who were living on the streets have
been moved into services. That is a 30% drop, but our
plan in North Dallas to eliminate homelessness there
will go to hell if this Homeless Assistance
Center is located on HH.
The pro-HH group has applied
for an occupancy certificate at HH and are moving forward.
Poverty is the main cause of homelessness. Out
of the 1,200 who sleep on the streets every night in Dallas, 700 are in South
Dallas, 300 are in Downtown and 200 in North Dallas.
You can see what a devastating impact it will have
trying to force all these people and the 1,800 who stay in shelters
to move North of the Downtown loop as to being wise
and putting the efforts and monies either in Downtown or just South of the
downtown loop.
In fact, the long term effect will be devastating
to South Dallas as monies such as CDBG and ESG will have to be shifted to North
Dallas to address the issue. All the experts from
Washington DC and Atlanta say it doesn't make sense at all to open a site
at Harry Hines. So, the only reason anyone would
vote for Harry Hines is not because they are being good stewards to the
community or those they represent
-- but because they have been lobbied by these Downtown Developers with
only personal interests.
Here are their e-mails.
(Jackson Fulgram)
JTFulgham@DigitalStrata.com
(Don Cass) Cass22771@Comcast.net
(Don Blanton)
DonGBlanton@aol.com
(Al Jernigan) aljernigan@earthlink.net
(Arvel Jernigan)
arvelj@hotmail.com
(Lou Reese) lreese@madisonpartnersllc.com
mbowen@madisonpartnersllc.com
Herschel Weisfeld) herschel@att.net
rweisfeld@hotmail.com
James Waghorne
Dallas Homeless Neighborhood Association
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