Dallas has set aside $500,000 this fiscal year to pay for lawyers who represent tenants in eviction court, but City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has told the City Council not to count on the money coming back, according to reporting by The Dallas Morning News published Monday.
The dollars were added late in the budget process. In September the council adopted a $6 billion budget, the largest in city history, and the eviction defense line came from a revision Tolbert drafted after most council members asked about it.
The money was moved from a street outreach allocation that was larger than the current outreach contract, which runs close to $700,000 and stays funded, according to Thor Erickson, who directs the city's Office of Housing and Community Empowerment.
"I would not commit that this is going to be an ongoing expense on the general fund," Tolbert said at the September budget session, adding that the council should treat 2027 "as a bridge year" and look to have the work done outside the city in the future.
A program that never paid out
The new allocation follows a stalled attempt earlier this year. The city asked groups in February to propose an eviction defense program with $1 million attached. The Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas and Need a Break Inc. all applied, but in June the council turned the bids down on staff's advice.
Erickson said at the time that the office needed firmer performance standards, and procurement director Juanita Ortiz said the city could not reach terms with the two vendors it had recommended.
Mark Melton, who helped found the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center, told the newspaper the rejection left his organization with a $1 million gap in a budget of roughly $2.5 million and that layoffs are possible without new money. He said the center handled about 8,300 tenant cases in the 12 months ending in June.
