Steve Wakefield responds to DHA plans
Professionally speaking, Wakefield has been a practicing attorney for 35 years and is currently a partner at Burford & Ryburn, LLP.
His other job – the one that doesn’t earn him a paycheck – is community activist.
Wakefield has spent countless hours over the past decade working to help Lake Highlands and its leaders deal with some of the challenges that face our community.
Wakefield and his wife Jeri have lived in Lake Highlands for 29 years, the last 10 of which have been at their current residence in Woodbridge, located near the intersection of Forest and Audelia.
With regards to the Dallas Housing Authority’s plans to place up to 70 people in permanent supportive housing near his neighborhood, Wakefield responds to questions about DHA's plans.
LHT: When did you first learn of DHA's plans to put supportive housing in LH?
Wakefield: I first learned of the Dallas Housing Authority’s Supportive Housing project in an article published in the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday or Thursday of the week before last. I left the following Saturday for a previously planned vacation in Mexico, but have remained in touch as best I can through emails and many cell phone calls.
LHT: Have you been invited to sit down and meet with any DHA representatives? If so, when is that meeting planned?
Wakefield: I have spoken briefly with Mary Ann Russ, CEO of the DHA, who advised me that no final decisions had been made with respect to these proposals – it definitely is “not a done deal” (her words.) I hope to sit down with Ms. Russ, along with as many other community leaders as possible, soon after my return.
Ms. Russ and the DHA have failed to obtain critical information that should convince DHA that a mistake has been made here. Although some progress has been made with respect to crime in our area, the extensive history of high crime continues to be an issue.
LHT: You're a vocal critic of DHA's plans. What are your major concerns?
Wakefield: These programs will be placing at risk individuals in an environment that continues to expose them and their neighbors to risk. A 9 to 5, 40-hour a week social worker will definitely not solve the problems and challenges the program beneficiaries will face.
An advisor to Richard Aguilar (the property owner, through Cash Investments) and manager (through Integrity Asset Management) has admitted to me that program beneficiaries will be neighbors with people who are likely to be more problematic than the persons being invited into the program. HUD literature acknowledges that environments such as these, where the beneficiaries will be introduced, does not bode well for success.
Another "advantage" described to me by Mr. Aguilar's advisor was that the landlord can avoid the normal eviction process if a beneficiary "breaks the rules," i.e., they can be more easily kicked out. The question is, where do they go after they have been introduced to an area that has already had more than its share of people with no place to go – back under the bridge at Forest & Audelia?
I feel, as does our former Councilman Alan Walne, that this is a regional problem. As such, all areas in the region should be examined as locations for these programs.
The default areas for these programs always seems to include Lake Highlands and Oak Cliff. Why can't we look at areas in or near Preston Hollow and near the Park Cities? That idea never seems to be considered.
