The City of Dallas is stepping up to the plate in the fight against homelessness with a new initiative to transform a city-owned property into Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for the unsheltered. The Department of Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization, in partnership with the Office of Homeless Solutions, announced the release of a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the property located at 1950 Fort Worth Ave. Applications are now open for developers who are willing to acquire and rehabilitate the site into a minimum of 40 housing units, according to the City of Dallas.
With a generous starting pot of $2.34 million in city funding, developers are motivated to quickly tailor a plan to revamp this plot into a beacon of hope. The NOFA, which was released on January 9, provides an opportunity for developers to not only refurbish the site but also to deeply impact the lives of Dallas' most vulnerable citizens by operating the facility as PSH. To be considered eligible, developers need to also secure additional capital funding to complete the rehabilitation process.
Interested parties can download the NOFA details for the site at the Department of Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization's website within the 60-day window that culminates on March 11, at 5:00 p.m. Furthermore, two virtual pre-submission meetings are scheduled for January 23 and February 27 to clarify any queries applicants might have regarding the application process. These sessions will be hosted via Microsoft Teams, aiming to foster an open dialogue on the specifics of the development.
The timeline for the NOFA process spells out a meticulous march towards actualizing this PSH dream, with internal reviews and scoring of applications by a dedicated evaluation committee set to follow the submission deadline. The city council is poised to make a final decision and award the contract in June 2024. Developers can start to fully swing into action with renovations come July if all goes according to the city's prescribed chronology.
