10 OctOber 16 - 22, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents million per 50 units) while an operator would be brought on to manage the facility and annual operating costs. Existing villages across the U.S. range in size from six to 200 units. During the second briefing, Wayne Walker, CEO of the faith-based organization Our Calling, outlined plans for a privately funded, permanent-housing village under construction in Ellis. The project’s first phase, made up of 25 tiny homes, is expected to open by the end of the year. The full proj- ect is expected to total 500 homes, with medical care facilities, a grocery store, a li- brary, coffee shops and other services also operated on the 280-acre campus. Walker said he would like to have built the facility in Dallas, where the need is high, but that the bureaucracy of City Hall often dissuades service providers from operating there. “ We knew we’d be sitting in this room for years to get it approved if we tried to do it in Dallas County,” he said. “Dallas is a lot more progressive now than it was three years ago when we started raising funds for this, and so maybe now’s the time. We’d love to sup- port and even help be a part of a tiny home community in Dallas.” It isn’t often Marilla Street gets called out for its red tape directly to its face, but Walker wasn’t exactly off base in his assessment — even though Dallas has made tiny homes work before. In 2016, the Cottages of Hickory Cross- ing opened near the spot where Interstate 30 crosses Interstate 45. The village is made up of 50 tiny homes that offer hous- ing to those with a record of homelessness, mental illness, drug abuse and incarcera- tion. The city only had to contribute $1 mil- lion to help the mostly philanthropically funded project get off the ground. The cot- tages have continued to operate even after the 2024 shuttering of the nonprofit CitySquare, which operated the property, CandysDirt.com reports. Even still, it isn’t a model the city has been able to replicate time and time again. The horseshoe last considered the tiny home strategy in 2023, when funding from the Department of Housing and Urban De- velopment was dropped into the city’s lap. Federal funding, however, often comes with specific guidelines, and as the council delved into the appropriations, it seemed the money couldn’t be used to fund pallet shel- ters or tiny home construction, even as council members voiced support for the ideas. “Philosophically, I would like to see us look at more transitional-type housing that could help fill in the direction we were hop- ing to be able to go,” said Council member Gay Donnell Willis, who is serving on the council’s HHS committee this term. These types of developments face an uphill battle, even if council members hope to move forward on a plan to bring more types of housing support to the city. For a pallet shelter village, the city would need to find an operator willing to take on the facilities and manage annual funding. For both types of projects, there is sure to be debate over where to locate a village within city limits. And even though it’s a well-known fact that the amount of money spent on a per- son in and out of shelters, requiring medi- cal care, and brushing up on the legal system far exceeds the cost of a person housed in a shelter, Marilla Street doesn’t exactly have any piles of cash lying around for a new project. But if there was one takeaway from last week’s briefing, it was this: across the United States, other cities are finding ways to make these types of programs work. Pallet Shelter’s most recent village opened in Ama- rillo, comprising 45 homes. Why not Dallas? “I think we need to consider the people that we’re trying to serve as neighbors. I think if your neighbor was hurting, you would show up and serve them,” said Walker. “It will take courage from (the coun- cil) to vote and do the right thing regardless of how many squeaky wheels are on the fence.” Pallet Homes Denver Villages of tiny homes have been built in 120 cities to help combat chronic homelessness. Unfair Park from p8
