Dallas city leaders apologize to Family Gateway CEO after roof repair delays lead to mold damage
DALLAS - Dallas city leaders apologized to the CEO of Family Gateway this week for delaying a roof repair that led to extensive mold damage.
Family Gateway's child care programs are still closed, nearly 4 months after the May 28 storms caused damages to the facility, impacting 50 families experiencing homelessness.
Family Gateway CEO Ellen Magnis showed FOX 4 the damage to the center's newly-renovated building.
What started as damage to the roof, quickly escalated to mold after the city neglected to take action.
"It took them a month to respond. Their response was we already repaired that roof last year and got a bid for a new roof and we didn't have the budget last year to fix it, and don't have it this year," said Magnis. "I obviously pushed back on that and said your building, your roof. We need help now. By that time we started to notice mold."
On Monday, assistant city manager Donzell Gipson admitted the city made mistakes.
"There's been a series of lessons learned along the way, some of them more painful than others. Again, my apologies to Ms. Ellen and her team for what they've had to endure," said Gipson.
It is also 50 families living at Gateway also had to endure.
"Our families, who are single parent households, who don't have school-aged children, whose kids were here so they could go to work could not go to work anymore. We've had this sort of slowdown of people coming out of the shelter, which has made us backup into hotels," said Magnis.
Three sleeping rooms are also still awaiting remediation.
The city completed repairs to Family Gateway's roof last weekend.
Magnis says the city is now moving quickly.
"My recommendation to the city is that there is enough emergency funding, so if there is a crisis, they can activate these funds, because the delay created by 'How are we going to pay for this?' It created delay after delay, and more mold," she said.
Magnis is also awaiting confirmation that the expenses her nonprofit had to take on will be reimbursed.
"This is the only emergency shelter in Dallas and Collin County that will take any kind of family with children. We need to be fully-operational and to be made whole," she said.
Dallas City Council members on the Government Performance Committee expressed support.
"I don't want to be in a situation here where we are having to go to staff to ask for you guys to move faster. This should be sprint pace get it done," said one member.
Magnis says the Family Gateway Center is expected to be fully operational within a month.