Dallas City Council has approved a $1.4 million increase in funding — totaling $5.9 million — for The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center.
The funding approval was last Wednesday, a day after four council members met to discuss homelessness solutions in the city — and, allegedly, to discuss moving The Bridge from downtown.
Because the meeting was not posted publicly ahead of time and there was a quorum, council members Adam Bazaldua and Paula Blackmon accused the group of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Blackmon told KERA that the meeting was to discuss moving The Bridge from downtown to south Dallas near Dallas Executive Airport.
At Wednesday's council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Moreno added a motion to bring the good neighbor requirements to the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee for review and discussion.
"I cannot say that there is something that's broken right now or something that you haven't addressed," Moreno said, addressing The Bridge president and CEO David Woody III. "This is just for our residents to have that reassurance and that that commitment is there moving forward."
The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center is in downtown Dallas, just north of I-30. For the past 17 years, The Bridge has worked to connect people experiencing homelessness with tools for recovery as they move into sustainable housing.
Woody said that the good neighbor agreement has been an issue for the past 24 months. The Bridge worked with city staff to conduct a summary for the Housing and Homelessness Solutions that has been ready for discussion for 20 months.
Moreno is on the Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee, along with Council Member Zarin Gracey who encouraged the council to be better partners.
"We put a lot pressure on this and we say we care about our homeless, our unhoused individuals and all these things," Gracey said. "And yet we put the organizations that are serving these people, these are the ones that we're putting this pressure on to do better, to be better and all of these kind of things."
Both Moreno and Gracey met with council members Lorie Blair and Cara Mendelsohn on Tuesday to discuss homelessness solutions with an outside group of philanthropists. All four council members are on the Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee, which would have made a quorum.
The meeting lasted long enough for introductions before Bazaldua and Blackmon alerted the group that they had a quorum. Mendelsohn told KERA nothing was voted on, agreed, or deliberated.
Erica Barnett, Marketing and Communications Manager with The Bridge, said in an email that the organization is aware of relocation talks in the news but has no plans to relocate.
"We are not seeking to expand services to another location," Barnett said. "Our focus remains on serving our Guests at our current facility and strengthening the programs we already offer."
City Council also approved $686,740 for emergency shelter services contracts with The Salvation Army of North Texas, The Bridge, and Austin Street Center.
The Salvation Army of North Texas broke ground on its 21-acre Dallas Social Services Campus project last month. It will be located at 8625 N. Stemmons Freeway, just west of Dallas Love Field.
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