City of Dallas considers selling $6.5 million hospital purchase at a loss
DALLAS - After pushback from the community, the city of Dallas may now consider selling the old hospital it bought with plans to turn it into permanent housing for the homeless.
"In January, I recommended we sell this property," said Dallas City Councilmember Zarin Gracey. "Wish we had come to this conclusion sooner."
The city of Dallas spent $6.5 million without finding out if the community would be on board with its plans.
"The community does not want this," said Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn. "At some point, we have to ask city hall, ’Do we serve our communities?’"
The city purchased the former hospital at 2929 South Hampton Road in 2022.
The money was from Proposition J, a bond approved by voters. The bond money is restricted to providing housing for the unsheltered.
After the city bought the property, it held community meetings about the plan for housing the homeless.
The community did not like the plan. So now, the city is considering selling the old hospital.
"It's not the right property in the right place," Mendelsohn said. "I do support selling it. I also support making sure that money is designated to finishing unfinished projects."
One of the options is putting the money from the sale into another project, like the one on Independence Drive in the Red Bird area near the Duncanville border.
"We literally kicked out people and made them homeless to create housing for people who are homeless, and nobody lives there," said Mendelsohn. "It is absolutely shocking. We are on year 2.5, almost 3. Please use that funding to finish that project."
The former TownHouse Suites property was purchased for $4.9 million. It was also designated for housing the homeless, but it’s nowhere near ready. City staff says it is 103 units.
Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis expressed concern that the city may have to sell the old hospital property at a loss.
"I worry about the faith taxpayers will have in future years about purchasing a property and having fits and starts and selling it at a loss," she said.
"The core of the question is did we overpay for this property? The truth is I think that is why we are still here," Mendelsohn said. "I think we maybe did overpay, and staff and council who voted for it doesn't want to admit we overpaid for it. We are just going to have to say there was a misstep."