Dallas nonprofit CitySquare — for decades a leader in the battle against poverty and homelessness — has run out of money to do its work and will go out of business at year’s end.
In an interview Friday with its leaders, I learned CitySquare will devote the rest of 2024 to transferring its many programs, which serve 27,000 people annually, to other neighborhood providers.
CitySquare also expects to turn over its Opportunity Center campus, across Interstate 30 from downtown, to another operator as a hub for poverty-fighting organizations.
“We didn’t have the time we needed to really right the ship,” said CEO Annam Manthiram, who arrived in late August in hopes of creating a new identity for CitySquare. “We kept thinking fundraising would come back early this year and thought the brand was stronger than it was.”
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CitySquare’s long-time visionary was Larry James, a champion of the poor who in 1994 became head of the fledgling Central Dallas Ministries, as the nonprofit was originally known.
James grew the operation into a powerhouse responsible for many good works in Dallas — permanent and temporary housing, food resources, health care and job creation. He also educated policymakers and led anti-poverty efforts at the behest of elected officials.
CitySquare was synonymous with James, perhaps too much so. Once he moved from his CEO job to a board seat in 2021, community members who long supported his work also began to move on.
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Larry James, then president and CEO of CitySquare, sits with a neighbor in front of an abandoned house near the Opportunity Center campus prior to its 2014 opening. What’s best for CitySquare’s neighbors has always guided the nonprofit’s decision-making.(Brad Loper / Staff Photographer)
Ongoing cuts in operating costs, staff and programming in the last year or so haven’t kept up with the “millions of dollars decline” in giving, said board chair Lewis Weinger.
Weinger and Manthiram told me CitySquare’s prospects were further hurt by a lack of financial transparency to the board and donors after James’ retirement and by “culture-workplace issues.” They said they could not provide details of those issues because of HR considerations.
This month, the leadership team and board decided the best outcome for the neighbors who rely on CitySquare’s services was to go public with plans to cease operations and enlist partners to take over the work at year’s end.
CitySquare’s main campus, on Malcolm X Boulevard just south of Interstate 30, provides services such as a food pantry, workforce training and a community resource center. Also on the site are 50 cottages that shelter a fraction of the 500 neighbors in its housing programs.
The best news in this grim moment is that local philanthropic foundations have CitySquare’s back and will provide funds to carry the nonprofit and its programs through the year.
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Wayne White, president and CEO of the Communities Foundation of Texas, told me Friday he and others have met with CitySquare leaders to determine how best to ensure neighbors don’t lose services. He said his team “is committed to working with funders and nonprofits to address the gap that will exist once CitySquare winds down their work.”
CitySquare CEO Annam Manthiram at the Opportunity Center campus Feb. 21. She movedto Dallas with her two school-age sons in hopes of building a new identity for the nonprofit.(Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)
When I profiled Manthiram in February, she had a sense of the financial problems, but she believed she would have three years to turn things around. “I didn’t anticipate as big of a budget shortfall as actually existed,” Manthiram said, “and the board didn’t know the budget deficit was as large as it was.”
For example, the board had been told the shortfall in CitySquare’s $39 million budget for 2022 was $1.6 million. Manthiram discovered the deficit was $3.2 million. Despite her cost-cutting after arriving in the last quarter of 2023, the nonprofit expects final numbers to show it finished last year with a $2 million deficit.
The previous CEO, John Siburt, took the job in January 2021 after serving as CitySquare president for five years. He left in December 2022 and is now president of Timberview Farmstead in Fort Worth. CitySquare’s chief financial officer and chief development officer at the time, both of whom had been on staff for only a couple of years, also left in 2022.
“There was no intentional hiding of the financial situation,” Siburt told me Saturday. He did not comment on the workplace-culture issues beyond saying “the need to change the CitySquare model created tension at times.”
In separate interviews, Siburt and James said CitySquare’s aggressive attempts to keep people housed during the pandemic triggered an unsustainable financial picture. “I took responsibility for overextending us during COVID,” Siburt said. He later chose to leave the organization “out of a belief that both CitySquare and I could benefit from a fresh start.”
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James said the nonprofit many times tried to do too much. “We would see the need and we were sure filling that gap was the right thing to do.”
For example, with struggling residents further crippled by COVID, CitySquare paid the rents and mortgages of hundreds of people and operated 1,000 apartments as permanent supportive housing. Once pandemic-related funding dried up, the nonprofit continued the program with the misguided belief fundraising would catch up.
Some of the 50 small housing units on CitySquare property, which provide permanent supportive housing to the nonprofit’s neighbors. This photo is from 2016, soon after the structures were completed.(Ting Shen / Staff Photographer)
Weinger described it like this: “Larry could pick up the phone to a few very generous donors and say, ‘This is the check I need each of you to write.’ We didn’t have that path forward any more.”
After James’ departure, Weinger said, a lack of faith and mistrust developed. “It became sort of a Catch-22 that, once Annam was on board, didn’t give her the time to show what we could do.”
Manthiram didn’t uproot her two school-age sons and leave a good job running an Albuquerque homeless services agency to be part of closing down a venerable nonprofit in Dallas.
But with no other apparent choice, she is determined CitySquare’s programs stay in place and its 85-member staff continues its work — eventually under other nonprofits. “My goal now is putting together a transition team to figure out which community-based groups are the best for the neighbors,” Manthiram said. ”Perhaps community partners will even more effectively lift neighbors out of poverty and homelessness than we’ve been able to do in the last few years.”
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The Opportunity Center property likely will become even more valuable once the proposed redesign and expansion of I-30 is complete. CitySquare leadership is adamant any new owner maintain the programming without gentrifying the neighborhood.
CitySquare could have sold the building and land to provide funding to get through this year, Weinger said. “But then what about next year?”
Manthiram is heartened that this transition will put neighbors first and avoid gaps in services. “A favorite verse of mine is ‘With God all things are possible,’” she said. “Right now this feels like the right decision.”
It’s been a minute since someone called me “fake news.” Forgot how hilarious it sounds when it’s said seriously.
It happened early Tuesday afternoon at the Cole Manor Motel on Harry Hines Boulevard, where I’d gone to check out a joint that city attorneys allege has long been “a storefront for prostitution, drug use, and the sale and manufacturing of illicit drugs.” A Dallas police car was pulling out as I was turning in.
Just inside the shabby, square-shaped motor court whose swimming pool was long ago filled in, a half-masked security guard who appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest helped a woman roll a new mattress into a dark room. He directed me to the front office, where a young woman stood behind thick, murky glass that made her look out of focus.
I asked who the owner was. She said she didn’t know. There were notes taped to the glass: “NO ID, No Room.” “Toilet Tissue Roll $1.00.”
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As I was pulling into Cole Manor on Tuesday afternoon, a Dallas police car was exiting. A DPD spokesperson said it was for a “routine investigation” but offered no further specifics about the visit.
Robert Wilonsky
The security guard went to get another woman, who acted like she was in charge. I asked about the city’s lawsuit, filed in April, which calls Cole Manor an “infamous crime hub.” I mentioned the court order signed last month that requires the motel’s operator to pay the city nearly $1 million in civil penalties and demands the motel be secured by Dec. 21 with, among dozens of other things, a vehicle access gate and a license plate reader.
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“Fake news,” the woman snapped before locking herself behind the bulletproof glass. I offered to go to the car to get legal docs.
“I don’t want to disclose any information about that,” she said. At which point, the guard suggested that maybe this interview was over.
I hadn’t visited the motel since Christmas Eve 2018, when it made Preservation Dallas’ list of this city’s most-endangered historic buildings — given its age (it opened in 1946 as El Sombrero Motor Courts), architect (the revered Charles Dilbeck) and proximity to an ever-expanding Medical District devouring surrounding properties. Dilbeck, responsible for hundreds of whimsical residences from Oak Cliff to Preston Hollow, revolutionized the look, feel and function of the post-war motor lodge, best evidenced by his most beloved local lodge, the Belmont Hotel.
There’s much to say about Cole Manor’s significance and past, which includes countless crimes dating back to a night in January 1950, when both local newspapers reported that three men stuck a gun in the face of the auto court’s manager and stole $300. That was the first time, but far from the last, the motel made news.
A March 25, 1958, Dallas Morning News story — about a “pants bandit” hitting, among other locations, the El Sombrero Motor Courts — was one of several crime stories from the 1950s that ran in this newspaper.
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But first we must reckon with its present — and its future — as Cole Manor heads to trial next month. Because property owner Manor Hospitality Corp.’s attorney says this isn’t his client’s fault or problem. The motel’s longtime owner instead blames its rap sheet on the operator who’s allegedly been booted from the motel and is nowhere to be found, even in court.
The city doesn’t see it that way, citing sections of the Texas Local Government Code that place responsibility at the feet of the property owner. Jill Haning, the city’s deputy chief of the litigation division, said via email that when this case hits a courtroom next month, “The city will ask the court to either appoint a receiver to take possession and control of the property to abate the violations and ongoing criminal activity or issue an order requiring the property owner to do so.”
In court documents, city attorneys say they’ve been working with the motel’s owner since 2002 to identify and eradicate the crime and code violations — only to have the issues re-emerge time and again. That includes 28 police calls in the last three years, including numerous aggravated assaults, drug manufacturing and, police say, the shooting death of a 69-year-old woman.
“As the saying goes,” says the complaint, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
One of the biggest crimes at the Cole Manor Motel was the removal a few years ago of the sign planted along Harry Hines when the motor court was renamed decades ago.
Daniel Carde / Staff Photographer
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The lawsuit also says federal and local law enforcement in February “took down a seven-person drug trafficking operation that operated out of the Cole Manor Motel for at least a year.” Per the suit, a search warrant resulted in five arrests and the recovery of six guns, fentanyl, crack and $20,000. The city finally sued Manor Hospitality Corp. and its operator, Bhumiya3 LLC, in April.
Bhumiya3 appears to be one person, Irving resident Nilam Patel, whom I couldn’t reach. He also never responded to the lawsuit and didn’t appear in court last month, resulting in a judge slapping him with a pile of code violations totaling $960,256.
Manor Hospitality Corp.’s president is Mike Patel, whose number is the same as Cole Manor’s and doesn’t work anyway, in case you were considering making reservations. Patel has owned the Cole Manor for more than 25 years.
I asked Lance “Luke” Beshara, Manor Hospitality’s Fort Worth-based attorney, how long Bhumiya3 was running the motel on his client’s behalf. He said he didn’t know, but noted that its lease was terminated after the city filed its suit. When I asked who was running the place now, he said he didn’t know.
“Probably a new tenant,” he said. “I am sure my client is trying to find someone who wants to keep it open. They’re not going to let the property sit vacant. That would be a terrible idea, A vacant motel? You really think it’s going to stay vacant? People would break in.”
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Beshara said his client met with Dallas’ attorneys earlier this year, at which point, he said, Manor Hospitality first became aware of the city’s numerous allegations.
“So,” I said, “you’re telling me your client was not aware of what was going on at the motel?”
Beshara said that was “not a fair question.” I asked why.
The swimming pool that used to sit in the middle of the motor court was long ago paved over.
Robert Wilonsky
“No, my client was not aware of any of these incidents,” he said. “Later on the city did send a letter referencing its nuisance ordinance and provided a list of certain alleged offenses. They said we have these reports. We got a letter with unsubstantiated offenses that supposedly occurred and were somehow related to my client’s property.”
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He said that after a meeting with city attorneys, Patel hired a security guard and installed a gate, though where, I have no idea. And I drive by the Cole Manor at least once a day every day.
But there’s no need to try this here. A temporary injunction hearing set for Jan. 8, to be followed by a trial 18 days later, will help decide the future of the Cole Manor.
New apartments are going in behind the Cole Manor Motel on Empire Central Drive.
Robert Wilonsky
As for its past, I called architect Willis Winters, Dallas’ former parks department director, to confirm the motel is a Dilbeck. “Absolutely,” he said. Winters would know, as author of a forthcoming Texas A&M University biography of the architect.
“You can tell by the architectural vocabulary of the building, how the façade was very complex, visually interesting,” Winters said of the motel. “It engages your eye as you’re trying to understand why it’s doing what it’s doing. The octagonal windows, the roof overhangs, the cupolas along the roof, the vents. All these items he added for visual texture and visual character to draw interest to the building and make people driving by in 1946 want to turn in there and check in for the night.”
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Winters said he used to drive past the Cole Manor every day, but turned in for the first time earlier this year. He stayed only as long as it took him to turn around and leave.
The Dallas City Council has approved a zoning proposal for a planned H-E-B, even as the plan drew concerns and some support from the community.
The slated project cleared a key hurdle for the roughly 10-acre site in North Dallas that would bring the first H-E-B namesake to the city, adding to the existing Central Market locales and its Joe V’s Smart Shops. The new grocer would land at the southeast corner of Hillcrest Road and LBJ Freeway, according to the agenda filing.
The City Council approval followed roughly an hour and a half of testimony about the proposal with many saying the new grocery store would create too many traffic headaches in an area that’s already grappling with too many vehicles. Some folks spoke out in favor of the proposal, saying the company is a great member of the community already and that it would be a good addition to that area of Dallas.
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The proposal for the property was for an “RR Regional Retail District,” on the site that’s been zoned “NO(A) Neighborhood Office District,” according to a document filed with the city. The proposal included deed restrictions volunteered by the applicant.
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“We appreciate the thoughtful consideration from city officials, staff, and community members throughout this process,” Mabrie Jackson, H-E-B managing director of public affairs, said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to serving Texans and look forward to bringing our first H-E-B store to the city of Dallas.”
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Among the more than two dozen people who spoke up at the meeting, there were concerns about large trucks doing deliveries and traffic stacking up around the intersection.
The City Council initially considered a denial of the zoning request without prejudice, a motion that would fail. Council member Adam Bazaldua didn’t support it.
“It was a social media craze when H-E-B started coming to the region, but I want to highlight that word and say the region,” Bazaldua said. “One of the things that I saw and heard a million times was, ‘When are they coming to Dallas?’ … We continue to put ourselves in positions where we have allowed for other municipalities, other jurisdictions, to compete with us.”
The Council member added: “I hope that we can support bringing this H-E-B to the city limits, the first one, and it’ll be the first of many to come.
For the vote, Mayor Eric Johnson said “sounds like it was 14-1,” during the meeting.
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This season hasn’t gone the way the Dallas Mavericks expected, even though they’re showing signs of life recently. They enter the NBA Cup week off with a 9-16 record, but they have won four of the last five, with wins over the Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets, and Houston Rockets, which are all good victories.
But how is the ceiling, realistically? If it’s anything less than at least a Conference Semifinals appearance, they need to think about the future around Cooper Flagg and sell on some veterans. And that could be exactly what they’re doing.
According to ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania, the Mavericks are expected to explore trades for multiple key veterans on the team.
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“The Mavericks are open to exploring the trade markets for Anthony Davis, center Daniel Gafford, and guards Klay Thompson and D’Angelo Russell, sources said,” Charania started.
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“…Thompson, who joined Dallas during free agency in July 2024, was sold on joining the Mavericks to play alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving on a team coming off a run to the Finals. With Doncic gone and the franchise winning at a below-.500 clip, teams across the league know Thompson prefers to be part of a contender over the remaining two years of his three-year, $50 million deal. After a slow start to the season, the four-time champion is averaging 12.8 points per game on 39.5% 3-point shooting in his past 10 games while holding opponents to 38.5% shooting as their closest defender, which ranks 10th out of 120 guards to defend 50-plus shots since the stretch began.”
Dec 6, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis (3) handles the ball during the third quarter against the Houston Rockets at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images | Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images
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READ MORE: Anthony Davis helping Mavericks move up in NBA power rankings
Mavericks Shouldn’t Stop There With Trades
Realistically, the only players on this roster who are safe moving forward this year are Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving, P.J. Washington, and maybe Dereck Lively II. Once Ryan Nembhard becomes a standard contract, he’ll be safe, too.
Washington’s contract extension makes him ineligible to be traded until after the season. Naji Marshall should probably be included there as well, but if the right offer comes across the table, no one should be safe.
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And that could go for Dereck Lively II, but his injuries could have teams around the NBA concerned. It’s clear he doesn’t have the same type of impact without a superstar point guard setting the table for him, and he’s only played in about 50% of the games he’s been available.
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Dallas should definitely focus on trying to clear the books of Caleb Martin and Jaden Hardy, as their contracts could really hold the team down in the future, considering how little they play.
One could argue that Kyrie Irving could be shopped, but they’ve made it clear that they want to build around Irving and Flagg for the next few years.
READ MORE: NBA expert makes case for Mavericks to keep Anthony Davis amid trade rumors
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