Fort Worth resident presses council on homelessness funding, cites city spending on new city hall

Adrian Smith, who identified himself as representing District 6, used his allotted public comment during the consent portion of the Fort Worth City Council meeting to press elected officials on homelessness funding and city spending.

"Although homelessness is a reality of this life, it's truly something that shouldn't be," Smith said, praising the work of what he referred to as the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition. He asked the council directly: "How much of the federal offer money, 176,000,000, was designated towards our homeless population?" and raised the city hall construction cost, saying: "What about the $333,626,188 that went into this new city hall? ... the cost estimate ... was at a $200,000,000 cost estimate, but we're well over that."

Those figures were presented by Smith as part of his appeal that the city "can do better and we should do better" in addressing childhood homelessness and the use of taxpayer dollars. The meeting transcript does not record a staff response or a city-provided accounting for the amounts Smith cited.

The council proceeded to vote on the consent agenda and appointments; the meeting record shows no on-the-record rebuttal or verification of the dollar figures during the session. Smith concluded by urging better alignment between stated advocacy and funding decisions.

Next steps: the transcript does not indicate follow-up action or a staff report on the budgetary figures Smith cited; advocates or council members seeking clarification would need to request a formal financial breakdown from city staff or the budget office.