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Though headlines this year announced that the homeless head count in Dallas County had gone down, many Dallasites were skeptical. They only have to look out their window to see tents, dirty mattresses and stolen shopping carts.
“This is a constant battle,” read a recent 311 complaint to Dallas City Hall.
In the past 30 days, Dallas’ 311 service has received more than 1,000 complaints about homeless encampments, records show. Residents and businesses complained about homeless people urinating and defecating on the sidewalk or other public places where children can see them. They complained about tents behind neighborhoods and apartments, under bridges and near retail stores, and reported unsheltered people cutting holes through highway fences.
Dallas’ “housing first” strategy to shut down a camp only once a permanent home has been secured for every camp resident is not quick enough to address the disorder that residents live with every day. The city simply cannot tolerate having people sleeping on the street or in wooded areas for days or weeks at a time. We need a middle ground, and the Dallas City Council is right to explore a pilot program for transitional housing options.
According to a recent council briefing, these would be makeshift homes without foundations, making them temporary structures. Dallas isn’t pioneering anything here; other cities struggling with homelessness have provided a roadmap. Think of tiny, prefabricated homes and refurbished shipping containers arranged neatly on parking lots to create small communities or “villages.” City staff and council members recently visited transitional housing sites in Los Angeles and Atlanta, where nonprofits provide “wraparound” services for residents to get them job training and help them get apartments.
Each person gets his or her own private unit, and it’s much quicker and cheaper for cities and nonprofits to set up these communities than it is to build an apartment complex or neighborhood.
There is some concern that transitional housing could distract from the city’s efforts to get more permanent supportive housing built. Dallas clearly needs both.
“We talk about what we’re getting: a roof over your head, a door that locks, something that’s waterproof, something that has electricity,” City Council member Jesse Moreno, chair of the council’s housing committee, said at a recent meeting. “And I just can’t understand how some folks can argue against this type of housing versus a tent on the streets.”
Of course, there will be lots of complexities to sort through. There is the question of where the temporary housing would go and how operating costs would be covered, including social services and security. Dallas has some capital funds earmarked for homelessness to invest as seed money, and council members are interested in a two-year pilot program.
We have concerns about the idea of city-sanctioned encampments that would keep people outdoors, and we cannot tolerate city-sanctioned lawless spaces. The council has to carefully vet temporary housing options and potential private partners. What it can’t do is sit around the horseshoe and accept things the way they are now.
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In August, when the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System filed a lawsuit against City Hall, we winced in concern.
The difference boiled down to which entity, the city or the pension board, had the authority to send a plan to the Texas Legislature to get the badly underfunded system back on track.
Well, the pension system won that fight in district court in Travis County. The plan it has crafted would offer substantially more funding to the pension system, with cost-of-living increases and a reduction in employee contributions in later years.
The city could drag this through an appeal, but as things stand, the pension system’s plan would become the required funding formula.
Most readers know the pension system is underfunded by more than $3 billion. The difference here boils down to how much additional money the city will contribute per year to get us back on track. Under the pension system’s plan, it would be millions more per year.
But this is a wholly negotiable matter. Two sides have different figures in mind. The sides need to hash out those differences in a way that ensures the city is aligned with a 2017 state law that was passed for the express purpose of getting this pension funded.
There are serious people on both sides. What we need now is a leader at City Hall who has the standing to get this done. Normally, that would be the mayor, but our mayor hasn’t been doing the hard work at City Hall for a long time and we don’t expect him to start now. It could be the city manager, but that job is in the hands of an interim manager now.
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins has been doing the heavy lifting for the city, but whether he can lead the city’s side in negotiations is unclear.
All we know is that there is an opportunity for a solution that gets this thing out of court and a solid plan to the Legislature that, yes, includes sacrifices but that also stops the drumbeat about this important public benefit.
Someone needs to get on the phone, book a conference room, order some takeout and work the spreadsheets. There is time, but the clock is ticking.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
Something I have come to realize is that if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan around the age of 40 (a little room for flexibility at the top) or younger, you have only gotten the bad in this. Your friends, family, co-workers, etc. all tease you and mock you when your team loses and for the majority of your life, for all of your adult life, that has been the case.
You get the treatment that fans of the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Yankees get in terms of meme-ability but without any sort of hardware to make crawling through the mud worth it. Consider that each of those teams are dealing with droughts of their own, the youngest of which was born when Dallas’ was already 14 years old.
It is for this reason that when CeeDee Lamb said following Monday night’s loss that teams are looking to “embarrass” the Cowboys that I found it interesting. I’m not here to act like playing the Cowboys “is so and so’s Super Bowl”, but I do put some stock into the idea that opposing teams smell blood in the water so to speak and know that a domination against America’s Team lives a little bit louder than most. Consider all the fanfare that the New Orleans Saints picked up earlier this season as a recent example.
These are just my two cents though so I was curious how someone who has actually been in those shoes/cleats feels about the whole thing. Thankfully I had an opportunity to talk to former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz earlier this week and asked him about the idea among other things.
You can watch our conversation here:
Cruz’s Giants team won the Super Bowl 13 years ago when Dallas’ drought was already 16 years old (I’d imagine Jerry Jones bought them a brand new Mercedes for the occasion). They famously defeated the Cowboys in an NFC East title game in Week 17 at MetLife Stadium, the first of three in a row that Dallas would lose to each of their division rivals. I lived those three years like every one of you and still cannot believe that they actually happened in that exact way.
The Murphy’s Law of who the Cowboys are speaks for itself in that what can go wrong will and while Cruz didn’t exactly agree with that particular sentiment, he did note that playing the Cowboys comes with a little bit of extra motivation. He added that playing for the Giants brings with it a big stage in and of itself, an objectively true statement, and said the right things about how you want to embarrass anybody you play because it’s the NFL.
Whatever the case you can add Cruz to people who at least partially share the sentiment that CeeDee Lamb offered on Monday night. The whole thing is depressing and it is hard to know when it will end.
Cruz and I discussed a variety of things, including his recent partnership with Captain Morgan and a particularly sweet new crewneck.
Starting November 22, limited quantities of the Captain Morgan Crewneck will drop on KidSuper.com. Miss the drop? You’re in luck – Captain Morgan is unlocking access for fans 21+ to score the coolest merch of the season. Head over to FollowTheCaptain.com, and while you’re there, dive into a world of hidden clues and surprises, because you never know what Captain Morgan has in store as we gear up for Super Bowl LIX.
Our thanks to Victor Cruz and Captain Morgan for the time.
When Brock Purdy took over as the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Trey Lance was left without a spot. That led to a trade with the Dallas Cowboys, who sent a fourth-round pick to the 49ers for the former North Dakota State quarterback.
Adding Lance wasn’t a bad idea on the surface, since he was the No. 3 overall pick in 2021. The problem was that Dallas gave up a fourth-round pick when it appeared there were no serious contenders for Lance.
The trade doesn’t look any better given the fact that Lance is sitting on the bench while Cooper Rush starts in place of an injured Dak Prescott.
MORE: Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy comments on Giants’ release of QB Daniel Jones
Despite this, Stephen Jones believes the team made the right move. While speaking on 105.3 The Fan, he even said they would do the trade again.
Ironically enough, the Cowboys said repeatedly that adding Lance had nothing to do with Dak Prescott. Now, Jones is admitting that was a factor in their decision.
Dallas also never truly gave Lance an opportunity. He was the inactive third quarterback all season in 2023, with Rush playing in garbage time games. Not only did they get no look at him during his first season with the franchise, but he’s now only played in spot duty.
Lance has completed 4-of-6 attempts for 21 yards with one interception. He’s also picked up 17 yards on three attempts.
Such a low usage proves the coaching staff doesn’t believe Lance has the ability to be a starter. Even so, Jones would do the trade all over again.
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