Here’s How a $95 Million Plan to Help Dallas’ Homeless Can Lift an Entire Neighborhood

Too often, efforts to reduce homelessness run into not-in-my-backyard opposition, making it difficult for our community to address a major problem. That’s why it is important to find ways to produce outcomes that make the city a better place.Case in point is the Salvation Army’s plan to build a $95 million, 20-acre campus for homeless services in an industrial area along the Stemmons Freeway frontage road at Viceroy Drive. Despite the need for a comprehensive center like this, some owners of nearby warehouses and office buildings have expressed valid concerns that the center would erode their property values.Without a doubt, the center is needed to provide vital services for the homeless, and the Salvation Army’s promise to pay for it entirely through private donations is a major step toward making it happen. And, as this editorial board has indicated previously, if a major effort to help the homeless can’t be developed at this location, where can we ever build it?But we are pleased that the city also is seizing this opportunity to explore ways to jumpstart economic redevelopment in this area of western Dallas with a plan to encourage property owners to reinvest in and provide jobs in exchange for tax relief and other incentives. The goal is to help address the concerns of property owners as well as to attract new commercial and industrial projects that would contribute to economic growth.  Continue reading...

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