Dallas Finds $1 Million That Could Be Used to Help Displaced West Dallas Residents Pay New Rent

Dallas officials have identified $1 million federal funds to help provide rental assistance for people facing eviction from homes in West Dallas and elsewhere after landlords say tough new housing codes forced them to stop renting the properties.The funds could be used to assist ​working class tenants in rapidly gentrifying West Dallas and in southern Dallas as they are uprooted in a crisis over affordable housing. Renters pay $300 to $600 a month for their homes and can’t afford more typical market prices of about $900 for a two-bedroom rental in north Oak Cliff to $1,400 in the Oak Lawn area.The Dallas City Council will discuss a proposal to tap the funds next week and a final vote isn’t likely to happen until early August after a required public hearing.Last September, Khraish Khraish, co-owner of HMK Ltd., told city and county officials his company planned to yank about 300 rent houses off the market. That sent tenants scrambling for new housing. The HMK tenants, about half of whom have already relocated, mostly live in small, ramshackle houses tucked into neighborhoods near new high-dollar apartments in West Dallas. A court has given them until October to get out of the houses.“So many lives have already been so disrupted,” said Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs, who heads the city’s housing committee. “I am not claiming this is going to solve the HMK housing crisis in West Dallas. This is more looking forward.”  Continue reading...