The Dallas landlord under fire for evicting hundreds of low-income families instead of repairing their homes claims he is being treated unfairly in Mayor Mike Rawling's new plan to help those tenants.
Catholic Charities will visit the families starting this weekend to identify their needs. Then, other non-profit groups will be asked to help provide relocation assistance.
“I don’t believe money is the issue,” Rawlings said. “I believe lack of information and misinformation is the issue.”
The city negotiated a code enforcement and eviction delay with the landlord, HMK Limitd, and owner, Khraish Khraish, last year after the owner refused to comply with new city rules that hold rental homes to the same standards as multi-family apartments.
The landlord would face no fines if tenants were allowed to stay until the end of this school year.
Now, Rawlings is working to help the 225 families still living in HMK rental homes.
“So, there’s a sense of urgency for everybody to come together, get this information, get the plan, get the money and get it done,” Rawlings said.
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Khraish stood through the Mayor’s City Hall announcement, then complained that he is being treated unfairly.
“They have no options for the community. I’m the only person who is actually providing options for the community, affordable housing for the community and I’m being left out of this entire discussion,” Khraish said.
Khraish said he plans to sell 130 properties to Habitat for Humanity to build new homes. He said he has sold 80 properties to that non-profit group in the past and also now plans to build apartments.
"I am dismayed that they have not even discussed my affordable housing plan," Khraish said. "I had to close my rental business due to the mayor’s selective targeting of my company."
Khraish said many of his west Dallas properties were built before the area was part of Dallas and forcing those properties to comply with current city regulations is unreasonable.
“There is no way that houses built in 1940, outside the city, and outside city codes could comply with Chapter 27,” Khraish said.
HMK tenants complain that basic plumbing and structural problems go unresolved.
Tenants’ representative Raul Reyes said he owns an old west Dallas home and it is possible to maintain it according to current city codes.
“As a homeowner. I’ve done that, so I would assume it’s the same concept as a landlord,” Reyes said. “We all have to be accountable and responsible as citizens and as neighbors.”
HMK tenant Stephanie Hampton said her rental home was built in 1960, decades newer than those which the landlord deems unrepairable, but she still has trouble getting repairs made.
“There’s been several incidents where he did not repair things in a timely manner,” Hampton said. “You would have thought that he would have started his properties without the city’s input several years ago.”
She has been told her home is also on the eviction list, but she is working to help even less fortunate neighbors.
“I have some resources other people may not have,” Hampton said.
Catholic Charities representatives said they will contact all affected tenants by March 1 to see that help is available to those who need it.
Rawlings said he welcomes the Habitat for Humanity cooperation Khraish suggests, but it will not provide housing within the time frame of his current agreement with the city.
"If that’s an ultimate solution for these families, then I’m more than thrilled," Rawlings said. "Time is a wasting here. School’s going to be out in just a few months.
