3 January 26–February 1, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents | UNFAIR PARK | Culling the Bad Apples Dallas proposes new rules for boarding homes. BY JACOB VAUGHN E ver since Texas passed a law in 2021 increasing penalties for people operating illegal board- ing homes, Dallas has been working on changes to how it regulates them. Senate Bill 500, which went into effect in September 2022, increased the maximum fine for illegally operating a boarding home from $500 to $2,000, with the possibility of 180 days of jail time for the operator. Now, the city is looking for more ways it can crack down on illegal or bad-faith operators of boarding homes and provide a better quality of life for their residents. Dallas’ Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee discussed proposed changes to the city’s boarding home ordinance at a re- cent meeting. At the end of the meeting, the committee decided to send the proposed changes to the full City Council for consid- eration. The city defines a boarding home as a facility that provides lodging to three or more people who are unrelated to the owner by blood or marriage and also pro- vides certain services. These can include laundry services, help with grocery shop- ping, money management and more. There are about 180 registered boarding homes in Dallas, Christopher Christian, the city’s director of code compliance, said at the meeting. More than one third of those, 63, are in City Council District 8, represented by Tennell Atkins. Next in line is City Council member Carolyn King Arnold’s District 4, home to about 36 boarding homes. There are also plenty of unregistered boarding homes, which makes the precise number in the city hard to track. But the city has concerns about licensed facilities and how they treat their residents. At some li- censed boarding homes, it’s difficult for the city to prevent abuse, neglect or exploitation of residents, problems it often receives com- plaints about. Dallas also doesn’t have any rules regarding how close boarding homes can be to each other. Things may be different under the new rules. If approved, boarding homes would need to be at least 1,000 feet away from each other. This would apply only to new boarding homes. Existing ones would be al- lowed to stay where they are. New lan- guage would also be included to require a separate license for each boarding home a person operates. There are some quality of life improve- ments included in the proposed changes to Dallas’ boarding home ordinance. For exam- ple, current city law requires registered boarding homes to provide a refrigerator but doesn’t specify a size, and it requires these facilities to have a kitchen with a stove or microwave. The changes proposed yester- day would require refrigerators to be at least 12 cubic feet in volume and kitchens to have both a microwave and a stove. Tenants at some of these facilities have reported to the city that they often fear re- taliation by the owners. The tenants aren’t always aware of their rights at these facili- ties. The proposed changes would require operators to post information about ten- ants’ rights and responsibilities, and in- clude language that specifically states that retaliation against residents is prohibited. Arnold likened the city’s issues with boarding homes to its issues with short-term rentals. She said they bring unwanted activ- ity to surrounding areas. “We have the same concerns, council members, with boarding homes as we do with the short-term rentals because we find … people roaming, leaving litter,” she said during the committee meet- ing. “We see some disruptive ambulances coming all the time of the day and night.” A lot of these issues came up in April be- fore the City Council voted on increased penalties for operators of illegal boarding homes in accordance with SB 500. At the time, District 1’s Chad West said solving these problems could lead to new ones, such as resident displacement. If the city shut down all the out-of-code boarding homes or the ones operating illegally, the displaced residents would just contribute to the number of homeless people on the street or in shelters looking for help that isn’t al- ways there. West asked city staff at the time whether there is an official or department that mon- itors the welfare of the residents in Dallas’ boarding homes. Jessica Gallishaw, with the city’s Office of Community Care, said by definition a boarding home is supposed to provide certain services for residents. However, code compliance inspects board- ing homes every 90 days. Boarding home residents may complain to code compli- ance about poor conditions, in which case the facility will get another look. Gallishaw said the Office of Community Care coordi- nates with residents if they’re going to be displaced because of code violations at their boarding home. “I worry about the people in the gray area … the bad ones we’ve heard about,” West said. “I guess those residents, if there’s an is- sue, they’re probably too scared to reach out because they may not have anywhere else. They’ll be homeless if they’ve lost that. I don’t really have a solution for that. It’s just a gap that concerns me.” It’s a complicated issue, City Council member Adam McGough said in April. “This council wants to really strongly sup- port restrictions against unauthorized, ille- gal houses where the conditions that are mentioned are absolutely atrocious and peo- ple are being warehoused,” he said. “At the same time, we’re trying to navigate an in- creasing homeless number where [displace- ment] is absolutely an issue.” But, he said, it’s beyond the city’s scope to some degree. “... The state, forever, has been sending people to these houses across our city whether they were li- censed, unlicensed or anything else,” Mc- Gough said. Other than the recent penalty increase for unlicensed boarding home operators, the city’s ordinance hasn’t been updated since 2015. The proposed changes to the ordi- nance will soon be brought to the full City Council for a vote. ▼ LAWMAKERS GIRDING FOR BATTLE LAWMAKERS FROM DALLAS PREPARE FOR UPHILL FIGHTS IN AUSTIN AND WASHINGTON. BY KELLY DEARMORE F or lawmakers from Dallas in both Austin and Washington, D.C., the early weeks of January mean gather- ing with their colleagues and preparing for a unique type of battle. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s first week in D.C. proved to be.a highly active one. She attended her first leadership meet- ing, took part in a Founders Day celebration for her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, along with several other congresswomen, and was interviewed on television. She says the high- light of her first week in the U.S. Congress was something she should’ve been able to take for granted. Remember the wild scenes from the 15 rounds of voting for speaker of the House? She was there. Crockett, who is succeeding longtime Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, voted for fellow Democrat Hakeem Jeffries each time, while her Republican counterparts squabbled among themselves for four days before electing Kevin McCarthy as speaker. “Crazy enough, it was actually getting sworn in,” Crockett said when asked what the top moment of her week in Washington had been. “I didn’t think the biggest hurdle I would have to overcome would be getting sworn in.” Crockett admits the ordeal of the speaker vote soured things for her, but she was glad that she and other Democrats in the House “showed the country that the Democrats are the adults in the room and we are ready to work,” she said. “At the end of the day, I didn’t come to Congress to score points on my oppo- nents, though,” she said. “I came to Con- gress to work for the people, but the idea that there was this historic breakdown in the functioning of our institution was a huge disappointment.” Of course, storylines abound when House members first arrive in D.C. at the be- ginning of a new term. For a Democrat in the U.S. House, now controlled by Republicans, it’s difficult to see past the headlines of the past few months that have foreshadowed the coming year for lawmakers. Crockett looks forward to addressing vot- ing rights and gun control laws, issues she’s passionate about. She’s concerned about a possible attempt to reduce access to Social Security. And she said she “fully anticipates the government will be shut down due to disruption from the Republican party.” Crockett also believes issues revolving around the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn- ing of Roe v. Wade will be front and center, and sooner rather than later. To her, that’s particularly notable because she represents the district where then-Dallas County Dis- trict Attorney Henry Wade worked as he un- successfully argued to keep abortion illegal in 1973. In addition, Crockett’s groundbreak- ing predecessor, Eddie Bernice John- Lauren Drewes Daniels Residents of Dallas boarding homes fear retaliation from their landlords, according to Christopher Christian, the city’s director of code compliance. >> p4
