The Slow Pace of Renewal

Dallas architect Graham Greene of 3200 Main fame is trying to restore the historic but dilapidated Wales Building at Live Oak and Carroll Avenue. If $1.7 million in private and federal funding is soon approved (as Greene and his partners expect), the Wales will be converted into a 61-room, single-room occupancy hotel (SRO) for the poor.

Working with the Dallas Housing Authority and the department of Housing and Urban Development. Greene hopes to provide housing to homeless people who qualify through DHA. Residents would, as with DHA programs, pay a rental subsidy of 30 percent of their income. They would sign a one-year lease and would participate in managing the building. Drug or alcohol abuse would result in expulsion.

The project has run into many snags since Greene and his partners obtained the property in December 1991. says Eric Jakimier, the project’s manager. Neighborhood groups have protested yet another low-income housing venture in the area, and banks have been skittish about loaning money on a for-profit venture that will yield so little profit.

Meanwhile, there have been complaints to the Urban Rehab Standards Board, Dallas* code enforcement body, urging that something be done to fix up the structure, But renewal comes slowly. In February, the city put the Wales’ owners on a 300-day timetable for bringing the property up to code.

Dallas’ Revolving Loan Fund for low-income housing projects has agreed to provide $725,000 for the conversion, and Jakimier hopes to finish work within a year.

“We’re trying to get people who are forced to sleep in people’s hedges into decent housing,” Jakimier says. “Some people are scared because they think this will be a shelter, but this will be high quality.”