Homelessness is one of the most pressing issues for Dallas residents and businesses and one of the most urgent policy debates at City Hall. Even our divided City Council seems to agree that the city’s approach to dealing with homelessness is either too slow or incomplete.
There are many complex matters to contend with, such as what kind of facilities the city should support with its dollars, and where those facilities should be built. These are conversations that need to move forward with the new council that was sworn in this summer.
We worry that a recent episode at City Hall will be a setback. And it’s all the more disheartening because our council members should know better.
You might have read about a proposal to replace The Bridge shelter downtown with one at the Dallas Executive Airport in southern Dallas, an idea that was reportedly floated at a private meeting between a small group of council members, an assistant city manager and executives with Ashford Hospitality Trust, a group led by hotelier Monty Bennett.
Opinion
It’s the council’s job to consider the merits of policy ideas, however controversial. The problem with the meeting has more to do with who was in the room, and who wasn’t.
The meeting was called by council member Cara Mendelsohn, chair of the housing committee. The other three council members present — Jesse Moreno, Lorie Blair and Zarin Gracey — are also members of the committee. The other three members of the housing committee said they weren’t invited.
Council members Adam Bazaldua and Paula Blackmon said their colleagues formed a quorum in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. There is some debate about whether the law applies to council committees. Blackmon told us the council’s own rules specify that committees are also governed by the state regulations on open meetings.
Mendelsohn denied that anything improper happened. She didn’t return a message from us.
Legal or not, the optics are bad. This isn’t just some episode of palace intrigue. A proposal to move a major homeless shelter from downtown to southern Dallas, where poverty is already concentrated, seems like a step backward. If this proposal was important enough to be presented to a majority of the housing committee, then it should have been heard by all committee members in a public meeting.
Gracey said in a statement that he doesn’t support the proposed relocation and that he attended the meeting because it involved his district. Blair told our newsroom that she wasn’t acting “in any official capacity.” But she’s a council member who took a meeting about city business at City Hall. We beg to differ.
It’s reasonable to ask whether The Bridge should remain downtown just as City Hall redevelops the convention center area. But any discussion about relocating The Bridge’s services should include the nonprofit. Leaders at The Bridge indicated they were surprised by news reports about the meeting.
In recent years, Dallas has tried to make amends for its history of treating the southern half of the city as disposable. The way this meeting was handled only adds to that sad record.