DALLAS AREA HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TEARS DOWN SEVENTH STRUCTURE IN EFFORT TO FIGHT THE BLIGHT …Ollie’s Place in Mill City was a haven for criminal activity

Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity demolished today a seventh blighted structured in their effort to tear down at least 25 old, dingy blighted structures in Dallas. Ollie’s Place, an old bar right in the middle of a Mill City neighborhood, operated as a cocktail lounge on property that was zoned residential. Dallas Police records show 36 criminal complains at the Ollie’s address since January 2005, including over 20 assaults and aggravated assaults.

“We are tearing down blight to build Dallas up,” said Bill Hall, CEO of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity. “Blight is a city wide problem. There are over 4,000 dilapidated residential structures in the City of Dallas, which works out to be about 13 per square mile. In Mill City alone, a neighborhood of less than one square mile, there are 58 dilapidated houses. Cleaning up this blight not only helps better the neighborhood, but also results in a violent crime reduction in the neighborhoods we serve.”

“Today is a step forward for Mill City,” said Dallas City Council Member Carolyn Davis. “To improve we must tear down, clean up and build again and that is exactly what the City of Dallas, alongside great partners like Dallas Habitat, is committed to do to make this neighborhood and all of Southern Dallas a place that people want to live and invest their money.”

Fight the Blight is part of Dallas Habitat’s celebration of their 25th anniversary. The plan is to tear down at least 25 old, dingy structures in Dallas neighborhoods where it builds that are hidey-holes for drugs and other criminal activity in the next year. Blighted properties in Dallas account for thousands of code violations and at least $5 million in city budget dollars for grass mowing, in addition to what police and fire departments are forced to spend as these properties become havens for crime.

About Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity
Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity transforms neighborhoods by engaging families and community partners in creating affordable housing. Dallas Area Habitat’s vision is that all individuals and families live in thriving neighborhoods where hopes and dreams are realized for generations to come because poverty housing is socially, politically and spiritually unacceptable. Since 1986, Dallas Habitat has served over 1,000 low-income families using homeownership as an anchor for hope, change, and fellowship resulting in an investment of approximately $120 million in more than 20 neighborhoods that pays over $2 million annually in property taxes in Dallas County. Dallas Area Habitat is the largest builder of single-family homes in the City of Dallas. For more information visit www.dallas-habitat.org.

List of Addresses Demolished
As of 1/19/12

3410 Villbig

3611 Spring

4702 Baldwin (Lyfe Ryders)

2614 Kessler

4418 Baldwin

2514 Exeter

4909 Pacific (Ollie’s)