The city bought the 2929 S. Hampton Road site in 2022 for $6.5 million in bond money with the aim of offering permanent supportive housing and wrap-around services for the formerly homeless. According to The Dallas Morning News, since voters approved the bond money for homelessness-related facilities, it can be used only for that purpose. It’s a 12-acre property with 100 units on floors 2 through 4, with ICUs and a commercial kitchen on the first floor.
A community work group was formed in May 2022 to help see the project through. City Council members from districts 1, 3, and 4, all of which would be affected in some way by the project, appointed 10 residents to serve on the work group, holding meetings led by the Office of Homeless Solutions between June 2022 and October 2022.
The work group was put on pause in October 2022 so city staff could review community input about the project. There was no community input before the city purchased the property. The group was reestablished in May 2023, increasing membership from 10 to 19 and adding representatives from Dallas ISD, a nearby library, a local elementary school and the nonprofit United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.
The group convened multiple meetings with experts, City Council members and other stakeholders. Members of the group were interested in either demolishing the old hospital and replacing it with market-rate single-family housing, or including no provision in the development plan for affordable or senior housing at all.
The work group visited two other sites: a permanent supportive housing community in Dallas and a multi-phase retail development in Fort Worth with over 500,000 square feet of retail, grocery and restaurant space. The group expressed interest in replicating either model at the Hampton Road site."We've already given." – Raymond Crawford, District 3 resident
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City staff presented three options for the site at a Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee meeting last week. Option one is to use the space for its original intended purpose, providing permanent and supportive housing for the homeless. Option two would subdivide the property and use the lots for a different public purpose. Option three is the sale of the property with potential deed restrictions. The funds from the sale could then be used for another project. There are pros and cons to each option.
Option one would serve the original purpose for the property, with the opportunity to add items like 100 housing units, educational space and hospice space. It also aligns with national best practices of providing permanent supportive housing to address homelessness. However, option one would require the property to be rezoned and would not include single-family residential units, which is what some in the community want.
Option two is more aligned with community preferences for the site to have a housing and community-oriented focus. It would allow for a mixed-use housing development that could include supportive housing, a resource center for the community to provide job training, employment search services and meeting space. But this plan doesn’t fully align with the city’s goal of investing more into facilities to combat homelessness.
Option three would involve sale of the property with the proceeds to fund various city projects. However, this plan also fails to address the need for permanent supportive housing and does not align with the city’s goal of investing more in homeless facilities.
City staff recommended option two, but not everyone is on board.
As reported by the local real estate news site Candy’s Dirt, Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn said at last week’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee meeting, “Option two is a big mess. … It’s lacking focus.”
Zarin Gracey, who represents council District 3, where 2929 S. Hampton Road is located, said he appreciates option two but he wants to hear what residents think about all three proposals. “I want us to openly talk about all three of these options and then from there, develop a timeline around one of those options,” he said.
Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia, who represents the area, said in a December letter to Gracey and other council members that she is opposed to “any type of homeless facility” at the site, according to the Morning News. She would instead like to see single-family homes built there. “Please take into consideration that Dallas County will not contribute any funding towards a homeless facility or services at this location,” Garcia wrote in her December letter.
If he had to choose between the three options, Raymond Crawford, a District 3 resident, told the Observer he would recommend selling the site. But he has a few proposals of his own for the property. He looks at the site as a blank canvas that could be used to elevate southern Dallas. He has four ideas for the property that he sent in an email to City Council members, city staff and Dallas County Commissioner Garcia.
“I hope that these proposals will spur city staff to think outside the box with an open mind rather than trying to fit an already decided agenda into a property in which area residents from three council districts have their voices of opposition on record,” his email said.
All of his proposals involve creating an elevated pedestrian bridge on the property to feed into the Oak Cliff Nature Preserve.
Crawford’s first proposal calls for the city to deed a portion of the property to Nolen Grand Apartments, which provides housing for people 55 and older. The additional land could be used for more senior housing units at the apartment complex, he said. The property could also include additional green space and new parking for pickleball courts in the area. This plan would move the Kiest Park pickleball courts to the Hampton Road site.
His second proposal would involve relocating the Dallas Police Department’s southwest substation from its current location on West Illinois Avenue to a parcel of land on the South Hampton Road property. This would provide DPD with a larger space and potentially lead to more positive interactions between police and residents in the area, Crawford said. “I thought, why not treat them [DPD] right, get them more involved with the community,” he said,
Plan three would have the city find a developer to build market-rate single-family townhomes or condos on the site, essentially creating a new neighborhood.
Lastly, Crawford’s fourth proposal would create more green space and parking, and the city would relocate the Kiest Park Tennis Center to the property and increase the number of courts from 16 to 20.
Crawford said he hasn’t yet heard back from anyone with the city or county about his proposals. To him, it seems like the city is determined to move forward with its own plan “despite the negativity that it’s gotten from residents and the opposition from Elba Garcia.”
Now, city staff is working to reconvene the community work group to identify site needs, host informational meetings and create a site development webpage for community interaction. Whatever proposal the city goes with, the plan is to start looking for a developer for the project by the second quarter of 2025. The developer should be approved by City Council by 2026 at the latest.
Besides his and others' objections to the city's proposals, there's another reason why 2929 S. Hampton Road shouldn't be home to a new homeless facility, Crawford said. In 2020, Dallas City Council agreed that eventually every district should have one homeless facility. Because district boundary lines were redrawn in June 2022, District 3 already has a different homeless facility in the works that was originally in District 8 — the former Townhouse Suites building that the city also purchased in 2022 to help house the homeless.
"We've already given," Crawford said. "We got our facility."
