U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Price is Wrong

How John Wiley Price spun money he didn't have into real estate gold.

Paul Ryan Pick Proves They Don't Make Rich People Like They Used To

What country is this? Have I been on some kind of horrendous toot, and did I sleep for a month, and did I wake up in the wrong country? All weekend long on my TV set I kept seeing Paul Ryan, the right-wing social Darwinist cheese-head, and they said he was a candidate for vice president of the Unite ... More >>

Farmers Branch Has Spent Five Years and Millions of Dollars Trying to Keep Out Mexicans. Is It Time for a Truce?

"It's Time to Celebrate Easter Early," Says Mayor Mike Rawlings About Resurrection of South Dallas's Bonton Neighborhood

For years, the city has wanted to do something, anything about the 60-year-old public housing project on Bexar Street known as Turner Courts, once described in a council briefing as "severely distressed," a victim of "elevated rates of vandalism and criminal activity" and in desperate need of demoli ... More >>

No, Seriously, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Wants To End Chronic Homelessness By 2015

President and CEO of Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Mike Faenza said as much yesterday: He knows he's "at risk of looking like Don Quixote" here, but he really, really believes Dallas can end its chronic homelessness problem by 2015. Which is why earlier today he did his best to convince the city co ... More >>

In the Dark, In the Cold, Counting the Homeless

The woman popped up from the pile of blankets she had laid out on a dirty patch of sidewalk and took a look at the ring of people surrounding her. She patted her woolen beanie self-consciously. "Why you takin' pictures?" she complained sleepily to a photographer. "I ain't put my hair on." Crystal ... More >>

Bill Fisher is the Good Guy, So Why Are We Making Him Pay?

The Morning News slimed the developer who exposed City Hall corruption and threw its support behind a rival.

Turns Out, Not Everybody Loves Continental, Lone Star Gas Building Makeovers

Photos by Anna MerlanA seemingly run-of-the-mill downtown development press conference had two surprise guests.​Over the years, the re-do of the Continental Building downtown has started to feel like a bit like Guns N' Roses's Chinese Democracy. Forest City, the developers behind turning the vaca ... More >>

Downtown Dallas Running Program Hopes to Get the Homeless Back on Their Feet

Homeless and once-homeless runners paused for some inspiration this morning.About 40 homeless people descended on Main Street Garden this morning, beginning just a little before 6. They congregated on the patio of the Lily Pad Cafe; as far as we could tell there were no "bums" in the crowd. These pe ... More >>

City, Prescott Realty Working to Jumpstart Long Delayed Lake Highlands Town Center

Like the sign says, don't drink the water. But on a hot, humid day, it was tempting to go for a swim.​Well, that was certainly fortuitous timing: On Sunday the 7-year-old who lives in my house and I went for our weekly trip to the Scotty'sTop Golf batting cages, after which we took a little drive ... More >>

Low-Income Housing Developer Accused of Scheme to Defraud Government Out of Millions

​If nothing else, the Dallas City Hall federal corruption case provided us with a lesson on how you get tax credits to build low-income housing. Which should come in handy for those who want to follow this case filed in Dallas federal court on Friday: Monique Allen and UPCDC Texas, Inc. v. Noorall ... More >>

How the City's Board of Adjustment turned the dreams of Josh and Jenn Terry into a nightmare.

A Hearing on Whether Dallas Discriminates When It Comes to Downtown Housing

The Atmos Complex, which the Hamiltons are intending to develop behind the old Statler Hilton​On Thursday we will get an interesting first official bite of the apple in complaints that the city of Dallas flouts federal law and practices racial discrimination in its downtown housing policies. The b ... More >>

There Are a Number of Familiar Places on Preservation Dallas's Most Endangered List

Justin Terveen508 Park Avenue, currently the subject of litigation as its owners try to tear down the building​At this very moment Preservation Dallas executive director Katherine Seale is at the Women's Museum in Fair Park formally presenting its annual list of properties, neighborhoods and "hist ... More >>

HUD Delivers $22 Million to Dallas Housing Authority For Beleagured Turner Courts

​Turner Courts, Dallas Housing Authority's 58-year-old public housing project on Bexar Street, has long been on the city's to-do list. Just a few months ago, the city council's Housing Committee took yet another long, hard look at Turner Courts in the hopes of using 2006 Proposition 8 Bond money j ... More >>

Remember That MLK Blvd. Business Facade/Revitalization Program? Um. Well.

Flickr user: Cheryl CowardI found this photo of the 1900 block of MLK Boulevard on the MLK Blvd site, maintained by former Dallas Observer writer Rob Walker.​Probably, oh, once every couple of weeks I get a call from a South Dallas shop owner complaining that the city won't turn over some of that ... More >>

The Old LTV Tower Has a New Name: The Grand Ricci Dallas! The Developer Explains.

​Update: As soon as I posted the item that was originally in this space, Leobardo Trevino returned Unfair Park's many phone calls. Which is why I've rewritten the item to reflect our conversation.According to developer Leobardo Trevino, from this point forward, the old LTV Tower at 1600 Pacific Av ... More >>

To Expedite Continental Building Makeover, City May Have to Cough Up More Millions

Flickr photo: JVanT​When last we visited the Mercantile Continental Building, the Landmark Commission was on its way to designating it a historic landmark against the wishes of its owners, Forest City, the company responsible for the Merc redo and the next-door Element. Forest City had hoped to gi ... More >>

What Remains of Federal Funds Intended for Motorsports Museum Will Now Go Toward MLK Boulevard "Revitalization Program"

View Larger MapBeen a loooong time since we've written about Derrick Mitchem and his proposed Motorsports Museum across from Fair Park, in the old Bama Pie building. Been no reason to: Last I looked, oh, three weeks ago, the place looked just as it has for years and as you see above -- more or less ... More >>

Mayor Tom and Texas's Other Big-City Mayors Ask Governor for Help Handling Homeless

Gabriel Metsu's Man Writing a LetterNever had time to make it to the Texas Big Cities Mayors shindig at City Hall today. But no matter: Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall this evening forwards along a copy of the mayors' letter to Governor Rick Perry, in which Tom Leppert, Bill White (Houston), Mike M ... More >>

The City's Trying to Figure Out How to Save the Deal to Save Deep Ellum

Every so often for about the past month or two, someone will whisper to me in hushed conspiratorial tones, "So, did you hear? That Deep Ellum deal is dead." Then, they will slink back into the shadows, no doubt to giggle their told-ya-so's into someone else's ear. Because, frankly, for every person ... More >>

Action Jackson's Back in Town

Alphonso Jackson Pays Homage to Alphonso Jackson

Is a Portland Company a True Guardian of Two Low-Income Dallas Complexes?

Digging Up Some Irony at the Mayor's Last Groundbreaking Ceremony

From Fired to Really Hired: The Mayor Explains the DHA Mess

DHA Has a Lott of Nerve

Change Is Gonna Come

With some help from his friends, Don Williams intends to save South Dallas one block at a time

DMN: Stop Whining, You Innocent People

Obedience School

Plus: Home, Bitter Home

Sold Out

Plus: No News

A Place of Their Own

Tom Dunning's homeless task force learns an old lesson: If at first you don't succeed, try again.

Artists in Residences

A Dallas real estate developer reinvents the art of the deal

Here's Hoping

Hope springs eternal on Second Avenue, but real change comes slowly

Flipped Out

Troubling questions about real estate transactions dog a former Cowboy's business

Sweetheart Deal

How does Virginia McGuire make a profit in the nonprofit business of creating affordable housing? Simple. She pays her husband.

Locked In

Trinity Works says it helps poor people find housing and jobs. But an Observer investigation reveals questionable policies that do little except ensure its clients never leave.

Pistol-packin' mama

After 26 years of fighting crooks and facial hair, a renowned landlord hangs it up

Damaged goods

What do you get for 50 bucks a meeting? Thomas Korosec sizes up the man and woman most likely to succeed Al Lipscomb.

Poor vs. poorer

Plans for an expanded Roseland Homes spark a protest in a working-class neighborhood near Cityplace

Taking It to the Street

Want to get elected to city council in southern Dallas? Forget the race card and patch that pothole.

Intent to Arouse

Dallas swingers learn that an ill-timed grope can lead to a date in court

Getting the lead out

A troublesome painting contract raises a new worry at DISD--lead contamination

Poor Relations

Guess what happened when Cleo Sims and her felonious offspring took over a Dallas anti-poverty agency

Rolling along

A plan to help poor kids finally gets the backing it deserves

Prophets Without Honor

The self-proclaimed ministers of capitalism have gotten a cool reception to their gospel in Dallas. But Chevis King Jr. and Joe Howard won't give up till they've found a better way to spend black people's money.

U.S. Reprehensible

Eddie Bernice Johnson has burned through more than 50 staffers during her four years in Congress. She says she's just demanding. They say she's a tyrant.

Black Tie winners

The biggest gay fund raiser in Dallas is more popularity contest than charity

Power Houses

A celebrity home tour of Dallas' rich, famous--and all too often tasteless--movers and fakers