Two Save A Lot stores in the Dallas area recently closed and allegedly left a mess behind in terms of employee compensation and building conditions, reports The Dallas Weekly.

The Save A Lot stores on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Lancaster Road shut down permanently earlier in the year, and some workers left feeling short-changed in terms of severance and PTO reimbursement from owner and operator Yellow Banana LLC and parent company Moran Foods.

Another Save A Lot store is in trouble

One worker, Dorthy Bisco, claimed she did not get paid severance or the option to transfer once the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. location closed, according to The Dallas Weekly. Instead, she was offered a “Separation Agreement and General Release” from Yellow Banana which provided a one-time payment of $2,000. The agreement also cleared the owner and operator of any wrongdoing.

The Dallas Weekly said Yellow Banana did compensate workers the $2,000 as outlined in the agreement without a signature.

Save A Lot’s internal policy states employees can receive a severance after their fifth year with the company — one paycheck a year for each year worked.

Unused PTO also was not paid out, according to workers interviewed.

Furthermore, managers at the two Dallas locations told The Dallas Weekly the stores were set up for failure.

Low stock and late shipments crippled the stores, and performance goals were unreachable. There were weeks when the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. location only pulled in $5,000 out of a projected $60,000 to $85,000.

The Dallas Weekly article also claimed Yellow Banana was behind on bills for product and repair vendors, and that the current building owner at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. lost several fixtures and equipment after they were taken by Moran Foods LLC’s procurement team.

Yellow Banana has not responded to a request for comment in time for the publication of this story.

Early voting for the May 4 election starts Monday and Dallas residents will have the chance to weigh in on a $1.25 billion bond package. It includes what would be a record investment in affordable housing in the city if voters approve it.

Three of the 10 bond propositions include housing-related funds — Propositions G, H and I — that total about $82 million in housing-related funds, about 7% of the total bond package.

“This gives us an opportunity to be innovative. This is very historic for our city,” said Council Member Adam Bazaldua.

A coalition of businesses, nonprofits, faith leaders and activists spent months advocating for a far greater investment: $200 million for affordable housing and another $35 million for homeless housing and shelter.

While the final bond package includes much less than that, Ashley Brundage, Executive Director of Housing Stability at the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas who helped lead the Dallas Housing Coalition, says that the bond funds will help.

 “Housing affordability is impacting every single one of us, so by creating more units, creating more affordability, housing more people that are experiencing homelessness, it helps all of us,” Brundage said. “So I think it’s really important to do that, to go out and vote yes.”

Dallas has a shortage of more than 33,000 affordable rental units, according to a Child Poverty Action Lab study. That shortage could more than double by 2030, putting stress on more middle-income Dallasites.

Homeownership has moved out of reach for many middle-class residents in a lot of the city as home prices spiked during the pandemic and stayed high.

There are a lot of misconceptions of what affordable housing looks like and who it is for, Brundage said. These days, she said new subsidized housing is built into mixed-income developments that include market-rate units alongside subsidized, lower-cost ones. It takes the form of apartment complexes, duplexes and triplexes, condos, town homes and detached single family homes.

“Affordability is not your rundown apartment complex that everybody pictures in their minds because that’s what we see on movies,” she said.

The funds, if approved, would likely serve middle- and lower-income residents, whether that’s subsidizing some apartments in a new luxury building so that waiters or day care workers can afford to move in, or helping teachers and firefighters buy a brand new home near the school or fire station where they work.

The bond proposals include two prongs to getting more affordable housing onto the market.

About half of Proposition G, which covers economic development projects, is directed toward housing. The $36.6 million would be used to help developers finance projects that include some affordable units. Essentially, if a developer is going to build an apartment complex or a new subdivision, they could apply for these city funds. In exchange, they’d price some of the apartments or houses below market rate.

Then there’s $26.4 million in Proposition H — the housing proposition — that will pay for infrastructure upgrades that make it less expensive for a developer to build on a site, and then the developer will sell or rent some of those homes to folks who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

Bazaldua said using bond money to make expensive infrastructure investments is especially important in much of southern Dallas, where redlining and disinvestment have led to greater infrastructure needs.

“It’s very hard for us to have an expectation for builders to bring these products to an affordable price range if we’re expecting them to fabricate an entire new street system or water infrastructure,” Bazaldua said.

The third housing-related proposition, Prop I, is focused on reducing homelessness. It’d pay to upgrade the Bridge homeless shelter, and put at least $6.7 million dollars into long-term supportive housing for unhoused people moving into apartments of their own.

The bond proposals aren’t without their critics, though.

Taxpayers will pay about $51 million in interest if the full $1.25 billion bond package gets approved, and a lot of people don’t like that. Passing the bond measures won’t increase taxes, though.

Council Member Cara Mendelsohn came out against the housing bond proposition specifically and said she’s not endorsing the funding for economic development and homelessness. She said the city should use other programs and funding sources to address the city’s housing needs.

“We have more than a dozen housing development tools at our disposal that don’t require directly taxing our residents. Some are federal and state programs, city tax abatements, density bonuses and use of the Dallas Housing Finance Corp., which can issue bonds repaid by the rent received on the units,” Mendelsohn wrote in a Dallas Morning-News editorial.

But advocates say those programs aren’t enough to meet the city’s growing housing needs on their own, and the bond investment will help fill the gaps.

They also point out that the Austin, Denton, Houston and San Antonio have all used bond funds to build new housing or help people repair their homes. Fort Worth is considering it for a 2026 bond.

Brundage points out that bond money for affordable housing function a bit differently than other bond funds. Instead of the city covering the entire cost of building a new house or apartment complex like it would pay for a new fire station, the bond funds would act as a force multiplier that attracts private investment.

One study of Austin’s bond programs found that developers spent roughly $6 in private funds for every $1 of city bond funds.

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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The 2024 NFL draft is right around the corner and with the No. 24 overall pick the Dallas Cowboys have a chance at striking gold.

As the draft nears, let’s look back at the top five draft picks during Jerry Jones’ ownership of the Cowboys.

1. Troy Aikman

Draft: 1989, first round, first overall

Position: Quarterback

The first player the Cowboys selected under the ownership of Jerry Jones became the most successful quarterback in franchise history. Aikman wasn’t the most athletic quarterback ever to wear the star on his helmet. He wasn’t the most mobile or statistically the most accurate. But the team captured three Super Bowl titles during his leadership, and Aikman thrived in big games.

The Cowboys won the Lombardi trophy every time Aikman led them to the Super Bowl, including Super Bowl XXVII when he was named MVP. He compiled an 11-4 career record in postseason starts. And though the Cowboys were not a good team upon Aikman’s arrival, he teamed up with Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith to quickly turn the franchise’s fortunes around.

After a rugged rookie season during which he lost all 11 starts, Aikman went 94-60 for the remainder of his regular-season career. He held or tied 47 club passing records at his retirement.

2. Emmitt Smith

Draft: 1990, first round, 17th overall

Position: Running back

No back in NFL history has rushed for more yards than Smith. And given the changes in the game since Smith’s retirement, it’s a record that could stand the test of time. Smith finished his career with 18,355 yards on the ground and 164 touchdowns.

He wasn’t the flashiest back of his generation, but he was far and away the most durable and consistent. Smith announced his arrival with a season that earned him offensive rookie of the year. He led the NFL in rushing four times, broke the 1,000-yard barrier in a season 11 times and was both league and Super Bowl MVP during the 1993 season.

In addition to his accomplishments on the ground, Smith caught 515 passes for another 3,224 yards and 11 touchdowns in his career.

3. Larry Allen

Draft: 1994, second round, 46th overall

Position: Guard

Allen is the rare athlete who was twice named to all-decade teams, first for the 1990s and then again in the 2000s. He was All-Pro seven seasons and made 11 trips to the Pro Bowl (10 as a Cowboy), a franchise record he held alone for more than a decade. Tight end Jason Witten tied the mark with his 11th berth after the 2017 season. Allen, a hulking lineman, blocked for eight of Emmitt Smith’s 11 seasons surpassing 1,000 yards rushing.

He played every position but center during his Cowboys career and was named to the Pro Bowl as a tackle and a guard. Bruce Matthews and Chris Hinton are the only other players in NFL history to pull off the two-position Pro Bowl combo. In a sport known for brute strength, Allen is legendary. He was able to bench press 700 pounds and squat lift 900 during his playing days.

Amazingly, at 325 pounds, he had some wheels, too:

4. DeMarcus Ware

Draft: 2005, first round, 11th overall

Position: Outside linebacker/defensive end

Few players have gotten to the quarterback more in their career than Ware. He totaled 117 sacks in nine seasons with the Cowboys, making him the franchise’s all-time leader. He recorded double-digit sacks in seven consecutive seasons, only the fifth person in NFL history to accomplish that feat.

It took the Cowboys linebacker 113 games to reach the 100-sack plateau. Hall of Famer Reggie White (96 games) is the only player in league history to get there quicker. A Pro Bowl fixture before leaving for the Broncos, he made seven consecutive trips for Dallas. Ware retired after the 2016 seasons with 138.5 career sacks, the eighth most in NFL history.

In August of 2023 Ware joined the first three entries on this list in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor shortly after.

5. Jason Witten

Draft: 2003, third round, 69th overall

Position: Tight end

In 2012, he set the NFL single-season record for catches by a tight end. In 2015 he surpassed 1,000 receptions in his career. Witten spent the first 16 years of his NFL career with the Cowboys, with a one-year break to go to the Monday Night Football booth. His 1,215 receptions rank fourth in league history and is a franchise record. Witten also holds club records for yards receiving (12,977), most receptions in a single game (18), most games played (239) and most consecutive starts (179).

Witten played the final games of his career as a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, signing a one-day contract with Dallas to retire in 2021. Since his retirement he had a stint in the broadcast booth before starting his journey through the high school coaching ranks. His success continued: As head coach of Argyle Liberty Christian, he led the Warriors to the TAPPS Div. II state championship title.

More from the 2024 draft:

— Dallas Cowboys 2023 draft review: Opening statements left plenty to be desired

— The 2024 NFL draft’s best offensive linemen, including Joe Alt, JC Latham and others

— Potential Dallas Cowboys targets for each round of the NFL draft

— Calvin Watkins’ seven-round Cowboys mock draft: Boosting OL early; Speedy Day 2 pick?

—2024 NFL mock draft roundup: See whom experts say Cowboys will select at No. 24

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.