Friday, December 7, 2007

Dallas homeless center owes debt of gratitude to Price

By Thomas Muhammad of Dallas Weekly

Yea, I know some people are already sharpening their tongues ready to attack me for this column, too. Not because they disagree with the subject mind you, but because it comes once again in defense of John Wiley Price, who, as I've written before, couldn't give a damn about what people say about him and doesn't need me to defend him.

But I wouldn't be much of a true brother if, when I'm in earshot of lies, half-truths and down right "hatin," I didn't speak up for my long dear friend.

It was after listening to black talk radio and hearing a handful of radio activists discussing issues of importance to the black community that this column was born. They rattled off dozens of topics such as economic development, affordable housing, homeless assistance, jobs and, that usual suspect, help for ex-cons that they claim John hadn't done (they're word) a damn thing about!

I won't argue many of these issues because any black person in town should have read over the years thousands of re-elect John Wiley Price brochures(complete with photos) his bragging rights on such topics. However, what really pissed me off was the lie that the Commish had never worked on homeless issues. Obviously these need-to-grow Negroes have just recently decided to get involved in this community!

Most would remember him using his "Talk-Back Liberation" radio show at KKDA-AM, performing live broadcasts at Operation Relief Center (ORC) on several nights in South Dallas and highlighting the work that the black non-profit organization did in its work with homeless individuals and families. After the airing of his shows those nights, many responded by volunteering at ORC, which helped it expand programming.

One evening the Commish held a town hall meeting with the homeless under the famous I-45 bridge, as local television stations and the daily newspaper covered the proceedings. The Commish took testimony, complete with a stenographer, from homeless people about their true conditions and what help they believed they needed to get out of homelessness.

In 1994, the City of Dallas founded a Homeless Assistance Center (HAC), commonly known then as a "Pavilion," where the homeless could get services as well as sleep. John worked with the African American Homeless Task Force to find a place to build that facility. The Task Force included people like Edna Pemberton, Willis Johnson, Zack Thompson and current City Councilmember Carolyn Davis. .

Fast forward to today to a quote last week in the Dallas Morning News. "Under a federal mandate, Dallas must have a plan to end chronic homelessness by 2014. The Homeless Center is the first step in the plan to end chronic homelessness… Tom Dunning laid the groundwork for the location, design and function of the center."

Who made this possible?

Word has it during a meeting after Tom Dunning was appointed "Homeless Czar" by former mayor Laura Miller, the commissioner handed him a package, which showed the old plans of the HAC, and said in order for him to gain his support Dunning must "go back to Miller with this, and if you get her to do this then I'll know the heifer is serious." Dunning took the package and worked it as his own, receiving the backing of the mayor and the full Dallas City Council; he even got support to build it downtown. And the rest, as they say, is history. Without John, there is no HAC. So, again stop whining. Go to work, or, as my boy Vincent Hall would say, dammit "Quit Playin."

Until then the struggle continues…. .

Pegasus News content partner - The Dallas Weekly

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• Poverty > Homeless