Can a cleanup plan from Philadelphia work in South Dallas? What $300,000 has done so
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The Mill City Public Safety Initiative received $300K from city of Dallas and Communities Foundations of Texas.
More than 21 discarded car tires, seven dead dogs, one stolen tractor and unidentifiable animal bones were found on a vacant lot on Brashear Street, just a small part of what had to be cleaned up in the Mill City neighborhood of South Dallas.
“That was all hid in the brush,” said Alendra Lyons, Mill City Community Association president. “This just shows you how thick it was in there that you can commit a crime and hide it and nobody sees it for a long time. And a lot of tires that were being dumped off. I mean, it was a lot of tires”
And this is just a fraction of the 471 vacant lots in Mill City.
The Mill City Public Safety Initiative, which is three months in, has received $300,000 from the city of Dallas and Communities Foundations of Texas, for blight remediation to decrease crime in the neighborhood. The initiative is based on work done in Philadelphia.
The initiative is a partnership that includes Builders of Hope, an affordable housing nonprofit; Child Poverty Action Lab; Zeal Development Services and Analytics, a South Dallas based data organization; and the Mill City Community Association. The team completed its first urban decay remediation on 11 contiguous lots in Brashear Street late January.
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Legal representation increases Dallas tenants’ chances of avoiding eviction
CPAL data underscores the importance of legal representation in eviction cases which keeps tenants housed.
- CPAL data reveals how courts rule in landlords’ favor 84% of time when tenants don’t show up; when tenants appear with legal representation, landlords win only 10% of cases.
- Through August, 28,845 evictions have been filed this year in Dallas County, an average of 119 per day, a 223% increase over the same period in 2021 and a 203% increase over the same period in 2020.
Eviction less likely for Dallas County tenants who get a lawyer — but most don’t have one
CPAL's data analysis shows that eviction chances fall dramatically when tenants have legal representation.
- Law students at SMU observed nearly 1,300 eviction hearings across five of Dallas County’s ten justice of the peace courts from November 2022 to April 2023, representing about 10% of all initial eviction cases heard in those courts.
- Renters who had lawyers lost their cases just 7% of the time, whereas renters without lawyers lost their case – and, typically, their home — nearly 70% of the time.
What Can Dallas Do To Motivate Landlords to Accept Housing Vouchers?
CPAL’s new report reveals just how difficult it is for low-income renters to find a rental unit even with government support.
- Only 7% of the surveyed apartment complexes in four counties—Denton, Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin—reported taking Housing Choice Vouchers.
- Within the City of Dallas, voucher holders are overwhelmingly housed in the southern half of the city and are concentrated in a handful of census tracts.