8 August 8 - 14, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents wasn’t wheelchair-friendly — the front door was just 2 inches too narrow, for example — Birdwell and her family drained their sav- ings, paying nearly $5,000 a month for her mom to live in an assisted living facility. Insurance came in handy when she needed HVAC and gas line repairs, though both of those costs still reached the thou- sands of dollars. Birdwell recently retired from DISD after 20 years as a social studies teacher. As a for- mer military intelligence officer, she was well-suited for the role. Students knew not to mess around in Ms. Birdwell’s class. Yet it was time for a change, she says. “The state’s at a tipping point with the vouchers,” she told the Observer. “People sound hyperbolic when they say ‘it’s the end of the world as we know it,’ but for teaching, it could be. We were underfunded to begin with.” That’s not to say she will stop advocating for her fellow teachers. Birdwell has been a longtime member of the Texas State Teach- ers Association (one of two main teachers’ unions in the state) and she will still be vocal about what she sees as an untenable situa- tion for Texas educators. She is also vocal about housing. Birdwell lives in the Buckner Terrace neighborhood, and she has attended several city council and housing commission meetings to op- pose Forward Dallas: a plan that could bring multiplexes to her community of single- family homes. The plan is ultimately all about the influx of people moving to Dallas, she argues, and not the people who already live here. She contends that adding multiplexes would place more burden on her neighbor- hood’s limited space and scant city services, while neighborhoods in the suburbs or ex- urbs would continue largely unaffected. And despite the accusations of bias and racism thrown her way, Birdwell remains steadfast in these critiques. “It’s always in Dallas that the working- class to middle class, white, Black or His- panic people end up footing the bill,” she said. “People say I’m anti-renter, but I grew up in an apartment complex in Oak Lawn, and I rented until I was 42. The way they’re fighting this is very typical Dallas politics: They can’t get you on facts, so they have to make you sound like a crazy person.” Like Cole, Birdwell is not sitting on a pile of cash. A common misconception about re- tirees, she notes, is that they don’t work. To keep up with insurance and tax payments, she plans to work at the State Fair and as a poll worker during elections. She also has plenty in common with San- tos: She could sell her home, but where would she go? The thought reminds her of her mother. “I could move to a smaller community,” Birdwell said, “but will they have the medi- cal care I need as I age?” Bee Carrera, a 34-year-old Rowlett resi- dent, is far from retirement. At work, she and her husband are dealing with stagnant wages, as cost-of-living adjustments fall short of what’s needed to cover rising costs such as insurance. She considers herself lucky — so far, many of her friends have been locked out of homeownership altogether. Even so, she is stressed about the burden created by rising insurance costs. She worked with a broker to scavenge for the lowest possible rate, and even that was out- side her budget. “Insurance is high no matter where you go,” she said the broker told her. “This is the best deal we could find you.” So now she’s looking for a new job (a pro- cess she describes as “pulling teeth”), and her husband, who works in the credit repair industry, is looking for a part-time job where he can work on weeknights and weekends. Each of these stories underscores how rising insurance costs have become, in the words of Krieg, “another kick in the shins” for homeowners. “We’re already at an extremely difficult point in homeownership, and this is just an- other difficulty,” the research analyst said. “The story with insurance is that it’s a grow- ing issue. This is not the end of it, and it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. It’s hard to see a way out of it unless there are some legal reforms.” What those reforms might be is difficult to say. Krieg is quick to add that there is no “sil- ver bullet,” for this problem. Plus, some at- tempted reforms — including rate caps and additional oversight from consumer advo- cacy groups — have played a role in insurers leaving some states. In other words, added regulation means consumers could still lose. Jones, the former insurance commissioner, says California has some of the strongest in- surance regulation in the country, yet a num- ber of factors, including heightened climate risk, are driving insurers away from the state. “If you pass a law that requires insurers to write insurance, the likelihood is that they’re going to leave the state,” he said. This doesn’t mean additional regulation — or heightened enforcement of existing regulation — won’t help. But it won’t be a panacea, and local municipalities will need to step up, too. For instance, Dallas City Council mem- ber Chad West wants to expand the city’s home repair program into areas like West Oak Cliff, thereby shoring up at least some of the city’s existing housing stock. And earlier this year, Dallas voters passed a record $82 million bond for housing and homelessness. While that number pales in comparison to some other cities (including Austin, which recently passed a $350 million bond for af- fordable housing), some of that money could be used to change the makeup of the city’s current rental stock. “We’re building a lot, but the majority of the new builds are class A, luxury builds,” said Ashley Flores, a senior director at the Child Poverty Action Lab. “This will lead to people being left out.” The experts interviewed for this story had reams of compelling data, but the numbers don’t capture the depths of emotion a home can evoke. As multiple consumers shared, while insurance is a requirement, it’s also seen as the best or only way to protect your house, your family and everything they mean. Data can’t capture the story of Santos’ mother, who left her four daughters with her parents in Mexico so she could earn a better life. She ultimately saved enough as a maid to buy a house and bring her children, her parents, her sisters and their families to the U.S. She planted fruit trees, picked pe- cans and saw her daughter grow up under the shade of “the Giving Tree.” “I still believe that a home is the culmina- tion of the American dream,” said Santos. “I’m a hardcore militant socialist atheist fem- inist, and I still believe that. And the other thing about a home is, it’s a part of a neighbor- hood. The kids on my block, we grew up to- gether. We invented clubs with arcane rules and joined each other’s soccer teams. That pull to own one’s home is so strong for some of us. That’s something you don’t really appreciate until you’re older.” ▼ SCANDAL OH, DEAR GOD! AFTER ACCUSATIONS OF MISCONDUCT, HOW DO MEGACHURCHES MOVE FORWARD? BY EMMA RUBY I t has been the summer of wrongdoing for evangelical churches across North Texas, with several prominent megachurch pas- tors stepping down from their leadership roles — or being pushed out of them — for everything from “inappropriate” actions and “sin” to child sex abuse allegations. The most high-profile example is Robert Morris, the former pastor and founder of Southlake’s Gateway Church, who is ac- cused of sexually abusing a child in the early 1980s. After the claims were made public in June, Morris resigned from his position and the church announced that an independent company would conduct an internal investi- gation into the allegations. But the church has stayed in the headlines for controversial messaging, such as calling Morris’ abuse of 12-year-old Cindy Clemishire an “inappro- priate relationship” with a “young lady.” At a recent service, Gateway elder Tra Willbanks openly apologized to Clemishire and said the church is not attempting to hide from the accusations facing their founder. “Cindy, in case you are watching, we want to again apologize to you on behalf of our entire church for the years of pain that you have endured,” Willbanks said. “We are sorry for our initial communication, which was clearly incorrect. You were a child, not a young lady. Additionally, two weeks ago, Gateway released a statement saying that this was an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ This statement was not correct, either.” It was the first such apology that has been made to Clemishire, who has not been privately contacted by church leadership, her attorney told The Dallas Morning News. A victim-centered apology is the first of several actions that should be taken after churches are rocked by claims of abuse, says Michelle Simpson Tuegel, a Dallas-based victim’s rights attorney. Tuegel has repre- sented victims in litigation against the Cath- olic Church, in clergy abuse scandals like Gateway’s and against disgraced USA Gym- nastics national team doctor Larry Nassar. But even with a public apology made, there is still a “big question” about how Gateway Church will move forward, she said. “I talk to [victims] every day and hear their responses to the institution’s responses after they come forward,” Tuegel told the Observer. “And I can’t speak to what the church will do, but I can speak to what they should do.” How to Regain Trust After Abuse Gateway Church leaders have stated they did not have “all the facts” about Morris’ wrongdoing, which sets off alarm bells for Tuegel. As a litigator, the phrasing tells her that some members of the church did know at least part of the story, and Morris had openly spoken previously about infidelity and sinful relationships in sermons. At the very least, Gateway should look into training programs that center on mandatory report- ing and victim support, she said. The church should also look to identify any individuals who may have known about misconduct but failed to report it and “clean house,” she said. “Without that, it’s still the same [leader- ship], and they’re leaving people who failed to take action,” Tuegel said. Last week it was announced that James Morris, the son of Robert Morris, who had been chosen to become lead pastor at Gate- way after Robert’s eventual retirement, was also resigning from his position. The younger Morris began working with Unfair Park from p6 >> p10 Mark Graham Diane Birdwell has attended many city council meetings to oppose Forward Dallas.
