EDITORIAL: Habitat offers hope for southern Dallas

Sep 28, 2008 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BONT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- On plenty of decaying streets in southern Dallas, a single home stands out. The modest house is newer and far better maintained than the crumbling structures that surround it.

Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity built many of these tidy, affordable houses, delivering hope in the form of a home for many families who never owned one. But too often, these houses are islands, as blight envelops them on all sides.

Now the nonprofit homebuilder is rethinking this one-off approach.

And it's thinking big.

Habitat is launching an ambitious effort to revitalize five neglected areas in southern Dallas. The organization that has changed lives one house at a time wants to transform entire neighborhoods. It aims to turn long-neglected areas into mixed-income communities. Instead of buying up single lots, Habitat plans to rebuild whole city blocks.

A new fundraising and construction program, Dream Dallas, will funnel millions of dollars to the Fair Park, West Dallas, Lancaster Corridor, Joppa and Bon Ton neighborhoods.

Habitat aims to raise $100 million during the next five years. While this bold effort is still taking shape, it has the potential to do wholesale makeovers in areas long left to languish.

Also significant is Habitat's decision to break from its traditional affordable housing model in favor of partnering with for-profit homebuilders on mixed-income developments. Local Habitat executives hope that, if successful, this innovative approach could be replicated in other cities.

For now, though, southern Dallas is the focus.

Habitat wisely is looking beyond these neighborhoods' housing needs to evaluate other challenges, such as schools, transportation and crime. And the group is seeking City Hall's help.

Mayor Tom Leppert already has thrown his support behind Dream Dallas. He's personally making the pitch to many business leaders, seeking financial support for Habitat and effectively arguing that a vibrant southern Dallas is essential to the city's economic future.

The partnership between Habitat and the city has great promise, as neither entity alone can do all that's needed. But together, they could make a visible difference.

This newspaper, too, has committed to a long-term crusade, "Bridging Dallas' North-South Gap," to improve the quality of life in southern Dallas.

The key to each of these campaigns will be to create a critical mass so that progress overwhelms neglect where vacant lots and boarded-up buildings blot the landscape. While Habitat will tackle the home-building, the city can help by improving infrastructure, assembling land and devoting future bond dollars to these five areas.

Habitat and other nonprofits certainly have done good and important redevelopment work in southern Dallas in recent years. But small victories sometimes seem to be swallowed up by the rot that permeates too many neighborhoods.

This is a transformative opportunity -- a chance to notch big wins and to see success emanate outward.

Help is needed, though -- from the city, as well as the business community. Working with Habitat, they could ensure that these five neighborhoods become southern Dallas success stories.

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