Residents of the Historic Southside neighborhood say they are confused by the city’s decision to shift money originally allocated to renovate their community center to instead be spent on a veterans home repair program.
The city council voted Aug. 27 to shift $370,500 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds designated to improve and renovate the Southside Community Center to the Healthy Homes for Heroes Veterans Home Repair program.
James Walker is the president of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association and says their community is often slighted when it comes to public funding. In this case, he said, his organization was not even aware the money had initially been targeted for the community center. Taking it away is unfair to people and programs that utilize the community center, he said.
He hopes there can be better communication between the city and the community in the future about such funding.
“The community would have appreciated if we would have had some sort of direct contact,” Walker said. “Because our neighborhood association holds our meetings out of the community center. So to not have known about that is kind of shocking.”
The city council agenda item indicated that a 30-day public comment period was held on the reallocation of money from April 29 to May 28. Notice of the move was published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday, April 28, 2024.
Councilman Chris Nettles, whose district includes Historic Southside, did not respond to emails from the Star Telegram requesting comment.
In August 2019, the city council approved a plan for the use of federal grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which included $370,500 in Community Development Block Grant funds, for the Southside Community Center.
The plan for the community center included Americans with Disabilities Act improvements, building renovations, and a senior center conversion, which would help older Fort Worth residents patronizing the center, according to the agenda item.
According to the council agenda Aug. 27, the funds, which are required by HUD to be expended in a timely manner, were not being used.
A spokesperson for the city said a report on the condition of the community center by an architectural firm showed a number of challenges that would make it difficult to bring the facility up to the city’s standards and level of use for its community centers.
The report showed the main kitchen and the warming kitchen are outdated; a renovation would require a costly abatement effort for materials in the building that contain asbestos; and the interior of the facility is not ADA compliant. There are also three floor elevation changes within the facility, making renovations more costly.
Additionally, the architects found that the renovation of the facility would likely uncover many other unforeseen conditions and issues that would not be apparent until construction was under way, according to the city spokesperson. The city determined that renovations to the facility would not be the best use of city or grant funds.
There are no plans for a full renovation of the center. The city may contemplate future renovations for the center as it assesses community center needs throughout the city and plans future general obligation bond programs, according to the city spokesperson.
The reallocation of the funds will allow for the continuation of the Healthy Homes for Heroes program for the 2024 to 2025 program year after a loss of grant funding from Texas Veterans Commission. The Texas Veterans Commission notified the city in the spring that there would not be a grant awarded to the city for the 2024-2025 program year. The city plans to reapply for the grant for the 2025 to 2026 program year.
The Healthy Homes for Heroes program provides home modifications, repairs and weatherization for low-income and disabled veterans and surviving spouses. For the 2023 to 2024 program year, the Neighborhood Services Department assisted 18 veteran and surviving spouse households through the program.
Johnny Lewis has lived in the Historic Southside neighborhood for over 50 years and is the vice president of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association. Like Walker, he said he never knew the money had been allocated for the community center. He said he was frustrated to learn it would be diverted elsewhere.
Lewis is a veteran and is not critical of the veterans home repair program. But he wishes the city would do more to inform people about such changes in the future.
Lewis says the Southside Community Center has been neglected for over 40 years and needs improvements, including new furniture, handicap accessibility and better acoustics inside of it preventing multiple meetings to take place at one time.
“When it comes to anything east of I- 35 we don’t get a damn thing,” Lewis said to the Star Telegram.
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