After two years of controversy, the City of Dallas is still trying to figure out what to do with an empty hospital it bought in January 2022. At a meeting of the city council’s housing committee on Monday, council members and city staffers discussed many options for the former University General Hospital in Oak Cliff.
The city bought the 12-acre property on South Hampton Road with plans to turn it into a site for long-term housing and services for people exiting homelessness. That plan was stymied by fierce backlash from some nearby residents, and efforts to build community support and get input haven’t led to a clear path forward.
City staffers tried to “reset” the conversation last year, hiring a firm with ties to the community to do engagement and outreach, Office of Homeless Solutions Director Christine Crossley told council members.
Now, she and other city officials were ready to ask the council members to weigh in on three potential paths forward.
“We hope to take this opportunity to really listen to the committee and truly understand what we have developed as viable options, and there could be additional options,” that come up, said Kimberly Tolbert, the city’s deputy city manager who’ll become interim city manager in June.
One option is to sell the property, which was purchased for $6.5 million and paid for with 2017 bond funds.
Zarin Gracey, who represents the area on city council, said that could be the best option, though he was open to others. His District 3 includes a second facility bought during the pandemic to create permanent supportive housing for unhoused people. It’s a hotel on Independence Boulevard near Redbird Mall, and the project has also been slow to get off the ground. That’s partly due to lack of funding.
“One of the options that I was proposing is that we potentially sell 2929 South Hampton and redirect those proceeds to the Independence property,” Gracey said, increasing the chances that at least one of the properties could move forward quickly.
But there are downsides. It’s unclear whether the city would be able to recoup its costs. There are also complications that could have financial consequences for the city because the property was purchased using bond funds designated for homeless housing and services.
“It sounds like there are some big financial clouds hanging around [this option],” said Council Member Gay Donnell Willis.
It would also likely sit empty for a long time. The property is currently zoned for a medical facility, so any buyer would likely need to pay to demolish the buildings and get it re-zoned before they could even start construction on a new development. Crossley said the city had deemed it cost-prohibitive to restore it as an operating hospital, though she said the city had heard of a physicians’ group that had expressed interest in doing so.
The city’s assistant director of planning and urban design, Andreea Udrea, said the city staff could consider and present some ways around those challenges.
“If the residents around it would like to sell it and use that money for their other facility [on Independence], I would not oppose that,” said Council Member Cara Mendelsohn, who supported buying buildings to turn into homeless housing, but is critical of the city’s management of the process because three of the four sites are still not operational.
Still, Mendelsohn said she prefers the option closest to the original vision for the Hampton Road hospital: To use it to create more affordable and supportive housing that creates long-term options to help people leave homelessness. In the city staff’s presentation, this option would also include some designated hospice-care units as well as community-oriented amenities.
“However, I think it needs a stronger focus on seniors…28% of our homeless are seniors. 28%. We need a place for them, and they have different needs than a younger population,” Mendelsohn said, suggesting a range of housing from active senior living to assisted living and hospice care.
Senior housing typically draws less backlash from neighbors than other subsidized affordable housing developments, or supportive housing that supports single adults.
The city is has a shortage of more than 30,000 rental units that low-income Dallasites can afford, and homeless services advocates say the city needs thousands more permanent supportive housing units.
Another option presented by city staff would include a mixed-use development with some single-family homes for sale, mixed-income apartments that would include some supportive housing, and some commercial spaces and community amenities, as well as a culinary training facility.
This idea appeared to draw little support and could have complications related to the bond funds used to buy the property.
Many of the council members suggested that the city needed to work to build trust with the people who live nearby.
Observers have pointed to poor outreach and inadequate community input as a driver of opposition and even misinformation among some of the neighbors. For example, many raised concerns that the site would become a “drunk tank” for intoxicated and unhoused people, especially alarming given an elementary school and library across the street. City officials have said that has never been the plan.
*Clarification: This story was updated to clarify Cara Mendelsohn's position on the city's purchase of four buildings to create homeless housing.
Got a tip? Christopher Connelly is KERA's One Crisis Away Reporter, exploring life on the financial edge. Email Christopher at cconnelly@kera.org.You can follow Christopher on Twitter @hithisischris.
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