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Squatters found living inside city-owned building
A building owned by the city of Dallas just a short walk from city hall became home to 20 squatters for months without the city even noticing its own code violations.
DALLAS - A Dallas City Council member says the city's approach to homelessness is not working fast enough, and their own building that got trashed is proof of the need for a more urgent solution.
A building owned by the city of Dallas just a short walk from city hall became home to 20 squatters for months without the city even noticing its own code violations.
After Dallas City Councilman Jesse Moreno discovered graffiti and a breached entrance at 711 South Saint Paul Street, city staff conducted a review and found 20 homeless people living inside.
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Homelessness is at a record-high in the United States at 650,000 people, according to a recent survey.
Many of the images Moreno’s staff took inside are too disgusting to show on TV.
"Toilets overflowing with feces and urine. Liquor bottles," he said. "This should have been something our staff should have spotted and should have been monitored. How we allowed it to get in the condition that it did is unacceptable. Had this been any other private business, they would have been slapped with citation after citation."
The building was the former Family Gateway Homeless Shelter, which moved to a new location last summer. When it ended its lease with the city, it was in good condition.
"The building itself is in a very desirable location," Moreno said. "Relatively soon, these parking lots will be converted into a new development called New Park with the expansion of the convention center."
As the city looks for property to sell to boost the Dallas police and fire Pension system, Moreno says this may have been a missed opportunity.
"We’ve had to invest in the past couple of weeks on additional security, making sure the building is secure," he said. "So none the less, money has gone into this building that should not have."
Moreno is chair of the Dallas Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee. He says what happened here illustrates the city's approach to solving homelessness is not working.
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"We have to have compassion but also enforcement," he said.
The housing crunch is a real problem.
There's not enough transitional housing for people waiting on more permanent options.
"We don't simply allow them to continue on our sidewalks as a waiting room, but that we bring them into facility, a tiny home where they’re going to be safe from the elements," Moreno said. "I want to make sure the Dallas I grew up in, I can pass on to future generations like my daughter."
A memo from the interim city manager says the marshal’s office is performing daily safety inspections and patrols. The city is also planning to use metal plates instead of wood paneling to secure the windows.