The fight for more affordable housing and a solution to the South Dallas food desert continues.
Residents who live near Fair Park and those who'd like to live near the Galleria took their concerns to Dallas City Hall Wednesday to once again ask for approval of the Frazier Revitalization and Carolina Chase projects.
Bernestine Williams is one of dozens of housing choice voucher holders who claims she was forced out of Dallas, away from her family, because of limited affordable housing.
"I had this much paperwork to utilize in order to find that property," Williams said of finding an affordable home in McKinney.
"I come with a broken heart to know that you don't want us to have a project that would be fitting to our neighborhood," said Dallas resident Wilie Mae Coleman.
About a dozen supporters of the Frazier Revitalization project waited for hours at Dallas City Hall to voice their concerns. At issue is the city's lack of support for a new 78-unit affordable housing complex and a grocery store in an otherwise dilapidated neighborhood where a gas station looks more like graveyard and garbage litters the ground.
However, the new Parkland Health & Hospital System clinic and Hatcher Street DART light rail station show some promise.
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For those supporting the Carolina Chase project, which is a stone's throw from the Galleria shopping center, "this specific project falls squarely into the housing placement policy," argued Demetria McCain, president of the Inclusive Communities Project.
McCain says the property has already operated as an apartment complex for lower income people, but it experienced a fire so the developer wants to redevelop it and make anew. She's asking the council to write a letter of support so the developer can proceed with trying to get tax credits.
McCain also said the Carolina Chase project falls squarely within the city's new Housing Placement Policy and helps the city encourage and affirmatively further fair housing. She says supporters have asked elected officials via letters, emails and tweets why the city won't support the Carolina Chase project, but they've been silent.
As for the Frazier Revitalization project, CEO Dorothy Hopkins said, "they're a lot of things coming together to make this a very cohesive, potentially high opportunity area."
Hopkins asked the City Council for more consideration on the project on the March 1 agenda.
NBC 5 did not receive a response from the city on the matter. There's also a petition circulating and running in The Dallas Morning News asking for support.
