The Dallas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to purchase the Hotel Miramar to house homeless Dallas residents who contract COVID-19.
The City will pay $3.5 million for the hotel, and the money will come from federal CARES Act funds.
The move is an opportunity to take control of a motel that attracts crime while housing those who need it most, and using the federal government’s money to do it, neighbor Brad Nitschke, who serves on City Councilman Chad West’s community safety task force, told City Council.
The motel will be used to quarantine those who test positive for the virus, and once the pandemic eases up, it will be used for supportive/transitional housing for stints of about two years. It will have a caseworker onsite 24 hours, plus “adequate security.”
City Councilman Chad West said the results of a neighborhood survey show that neighbors closest to the motel generally are in favor of the purchase.
Neighbors in the Stevens Park area opposed moving otherwise homeless people into Cliff Manor on Fort Worth Avenue 10 years ago. But the city has a need for more homeless housing generally, and especially amid the pandemic. The Stevens Park Estates neighborhood, which backs up to the motel, approved of the purchase.
Alice Zacarello, who has lived in her house near Cliff Manor for 34 years and is executive director for The Well Community, said her property’s value has gone up every year she’s lived there.
The motel, under its current private ownership, doesn’t contribute to the neighborhood but only adds to concerns about “safety, crime, poverty, lack of hope and growth,” said Jennifer Snow, who serves on the Dallas Citizens Homeless Commission, and whose about 900 feet from the motel.
West apologized to Oak Cliff residents for rushing the proposal through, although he met with neighbors beforehand, but the City was rushed to complete the purchase by the end of the year per CARES Act guidelines.
