District 10 Councilmember, Jerry Allen
Anytime you get broadsided with an issue as complex as supportive housing, you can expect emotions to run sky high.
Emails and blog posts spread like wildfire, with fear generally being the outcome. Sides are quickly taken, and passion tends to rule the day.
A lot of information is spread back and forth in situations like these, with the truth usually being found somewhere in the middle.
One of the unfortunate parts of this learning journey is that there are those who begin proposing the idea that our community is on the edge of the abyss and about to fall into the darkness.
For me, this is the worst leg of the experience.
These neighbors want us to believe that crime is rampant, that our schools are going downhill, and it's all the fault of "those people." The same folks lead us to believe that all our neighbors who live in multi-family complexes are, for the most part, in some form of subsidized housing.
To me this is a self-destructive attitude unbecoming of our community.
The facts are that our district, through the hard work of our police department and the neighbors who participate in the Volunteers in Patrol program, had the greatest percentage reduction of crime last year of any of the 14 council districts.
Year-to-date we are seeing a reduction in crime over last year’s numbers. Of those 14 districts, there are four districts that report fewer crimes than our community, while there are nine that have a worse record of crime than Lake Highlands.
The same success story is applicable for our schools. Every school in our district is either exemplary or recognized.
This is a result of our great educators working with parents who care.
As far as subsidized housing is concerned, of the estimated 500,000 housing units in Dallas, 41,523 are reported to have some form of subsidization.
Of the reported 38,369 housing units in District 10, it is reported that 1,688 have some form of subsidization.
Again, within the 14 council districts, there are four districts that currently have less subsidized housing than District 10 and there are nine that have more subsidized housing.
At the end of the day, most people just want a better quality of life for themselves and their children. For this very reason I am excited to see many of the multi-family communities in Lake Highlands starting to adopt after-school programs for their residents.
I am just as excited to see this community come together to form an on-line directory to report problem renters. This will be a great asset to screen prospective renters, and it will become a communication tool to alert other multi-family complex managers to problem tenants.
Good, strong, positive steps have been made and are continuing to be made.
Perhaps the next step is just to wave to your neighbor.
Councilmember Jerry Allen represents District 10 on the Dallas City Council.
He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 214.670.4068.
Always better to focus on the positive and in that way, better the negative.