The City of Dallas’ Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS) recently revised cost estimates for its porta-potty project, with the cost to taxpayers rising by over 350% to upwards of $105,000 for seven units.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the original budget proposed for providing seven porta-potty locations for the homeless and vagrant population was $23,000 per year. However, after the original vendor pulled out of the contract, the costs skyrocketed to six figures.
A memo released by OHS noted that the original vendor, United Rental, decided “they would no longer work with OHS due to security concerns.”
When asked about the vendor’s security concerns, Christine Crossley, director of the OHS, did not provide any additional details, only telling The Dallas Express that after “setting out the first two units, the first vendor decided they didn’t really want to deal with our particular population and that that wasn’t something that they were prepared to continue doing.”
Several instances of violence or threats of violence by homeless or vagrant individuals have occurred recently in Dallas, potentially suggesting the type of conditions that may have led to the original vendor’s decision to pull out.
On July 12, a homeless person allegedly attacked another man in his car with a hammer, as reported previously by The Dallas Express.
The victim suffered a head injury and a torn rotator cuff from the attack. The victim’s wife reported the attack on NextDoor and pressed charges, however, the assailant did not immediately receive jail time.
On September 14, a panhandler allegedly violently threatened a woman at a Chevron gas station while she attempted to fuel her car.
The man, seemingly a vagrant, blocked her from getting gas and demanded money, as reported by The Dallas Express. After the woman refused to give him money, the man yelled, “B**ch! I’m gonna f**king slap you!” before hitting her car as she drove off.
Director Crossley explained that after United Rental pulled out, OHS “had to go back out and source the new vendor, and [with] the new vendors, the cost was significantly higher.”
Crossley noted that OHS had to outsource the porta-potties and the maintenance because the department does not have the means to maintain the units with its own personnel.
The OHS received nearly $12 million in taxpayer funds for the fiscal year 2021-2022.
Crossley explained, “You know, OHS doesn’t have a specialty in terms of knowledge on how to operate porta-potties.”
Further contributing to the increased costs was the decision to clean the units five times a week instead of the initially planned three times.
“We’ve realized through the process that, you know, five days a week is really better than three,” she continued. “We said if we’re going to continue this program, which of course, we would like to do … we need to stop the cleanings up to five days a week.”
Currently, the OHS does not have a budget to cover the $105,000 cost for the seven porta-potties.
“We don’t have that funded right now,” Crossley explained. “It’s not a budget item that we have, so it’s rolled into our cleaning budget.”