Councilmembers bemoaned yet another issue with a city-owned property.
DALLAS — The roof of a city-owned homeless shelter in Far North Dallas has still not been replaced — months after it was damaged in a late-May storm — leading to mold damage that shut down part of the building, staff told a council committee Monday.
The roof leak at the new Family Gateway building near Preston Road and President George Bush Turnpike was first reported to the city on June 3, but it took more than three weeks before the city permitted its vendor to examine the roof. By June 26, Family Gateway had already reported water damage inside the building, city staff wrote in a memo.
Councilmembers expressed frustration at the delay in taking action, which is the latest in a slew of issues Dallas has faced with the management of its properties across the city.
“We are pissing away money when we do not take care of business when we know it’s there,” said Councilperson Cara Mendelsohn, who represents the district containing the shelter.
Already this year, the city has faced scrutiny and disappointment from councilmembers concerned with how it handled a building it purchased for its building inspectors — only to move staff out after discovering an inspection problem , and with a former homeless shelter councilmembers complained the city allowed about 20 people to start squatting inside.
City staff were set to face sharp questions from councilmembers about the handling of those properties in a briefing Monday afternoon, but the length of the inquisition over the roof problem at the Family Gateway shelter led Government Performance and Financial Management Committee chair Chad West to postpone the broader discussion until September.
Instead, councilmembers excoriated staff for their handling of the roof problem at the Family Gateway, which resulted in mold that shut down a daycare inside the building in late July.
“We’ve got a major mess and while this may have cost x amount now it’s x times four,” said Councilmember Paula Blackmon. “We just need to figure out how we can do something — or do things better.”
City staff acknowledged the issue and chalked up part of the delay to confusion over whether the city, as the landlord, or Gateway, as the tenant, was responsible for the roof repair.
The city memo said the Office of Homeless Solutions offered to help move residents in affected rooms to a hotel, but Family Gateway declined and moved them to other rooms in the facility instead.
Mold remediation began Aug. 5 and resumed last week, city staff wrote.
“The city has submitted the roof report and proposal to the insurance adjustor for review and claim consideration,” the memo said. “Staff are awaiting the adjustor’s authorization to begin roof repairs.”
“We can’t let situations like this have a lack of urgency,” Councilmember Chad West said.
Mendelsohn blamed city management and said councilmembers need answers on what has gone wrong with oversight of city properties to prevent similar problems from happening again.
“We collect a lot of tax from people and I think they deserve to have the kind of city that’s going to manage their dollars, their properties and their assets effectively and I think we need to do a better job of that,” she said.