Correction, 3:46 p.m., Sept. 12, 2018: An earlier version of this column incorrectly characterized funding shortfalls at The Dallas Housing Authority. The agency has committed $160 million in available housing assistance funds through the end of 2018. It did not spend those funds in the first half of the year. The column and headline have been updated to reflect this correction.

In October the St. Jude Center will officially grand-open on Forest Lane, offering shelter to 104 seniors who would otherwise be living on the street. And from what I could tell during my walk-through Thursday, when us nearby neighbors were invited on a tour, it's a perfectly lovely complex — more like a hotel than permanent supportive housing.

There are three stories of residential rooms, each furnished with flat-screens, hot plates, refrigerators and other amenities; all have high, vaulted ceilings. And downstairs is a cozy, fireplaced library donated by the stars of HGTV's series Flip or Flop Fort Worth. Worth every penny of the $5 million (and then some) Dallas City Hall, Dallas County, the Catholic Housing Initiative and other donors sank into what used to be a senior-living facility called The Victors at Forest Lane.

But the October opening will not be as grand as originally expected.

That's because for the foreseeable future, most of St. Jude Center's rooms will remain empty. And that is because the Dallas Housing Authority is out of money to fund the vouchers people need to live in St. Jude and other housing around the city.

In fact, DHA has already committed all the money it had for housing assistance. It now has a projected shortfall and can't help the residents St. Jude is looking to assist.

That stunned city officials, many of whom are just now finding out. The word "mismanagement" comes up a lot.

News of the trouble comes at a particularly bad time for City Hall. If one city official might have been able to beg the feds to fill the DHA hole, it was Raquel Favela.

Trouble is, Favela, the chief of the city's economic development and neighborhood services, is on the way out the door. She submitted a three-page resignation letter last week.

She says the departure isn't related to DHA's woes, and that she's leaving because she accomplished what she came here to do. But, as she hits the door, Favela still has plenty of concerns about the way DHA is being run.

Meanwhile, qualified people who need homes aren't going to get them, at least this year.

"It's extremely disheartening," said Dave Woodyard, the president of Catholic Charities Dallas, which built and runs St. Jude Center.

It's considered a pilot project — housing for the homeless 55-and-up, with services, in northwest Dallas. Right now, five people live there — veterans holding Veterans Administration Supportive Housing vouchers dispensed by the Dallas Housing Authority. A handful of other folks are on their way, too, most also vets.

But until next year, fingers crossed, that will be it. Woodyard said he found out in June that DHA wasn't going to "honor its letter of intent" to provide the vouchers needed to fill the place.

"It's very disappointing," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who told me this week he didn't find out about this until last month. He didn't even know how much DHA was short.

DHA's dollars come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — around $150 million in recent years. And DHA, which serves some 17,000 clients spread over Dallas and the surrounding counties, says it has already committed its available funds for 2018.

Because of rising rents, said Troy Broussard, the DHA's president and CEO.

"The rental rate [in Dallas] has been outpacing the national averages," he said this week. "We're experiencing significant cost increases ... so the expenses are outpacing what we receive from the federal government."

The DHA's outside spokesperson, Jacqueline Chen, sent me two very simple charts. One says that in 2015, the average housing assistance payment per unit was $596, and that in 2018 that number jumped to $816. The other says that in 2015 DHA spent $120 million on vouchers, and that it's now $160 million.

Which is all very strange. Because landlords in this city are widely known to reject housing vouchers in order to get market rate for their rental units. The state says it's their right. And according to Dallas-based nonprofit Inclusive Communities Project, which last year sued the state over this issue, only 12 percent of private, market-rate apartment complexes in Dallas and the neighboring counties accept housing vouchers.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (center) applauds as Troy Broussard, president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority, speaks during a tour of the Dallas Housing Authority's Major League Baseball Youth Academy as part of his Listening Tour in Dallas on Thursday, March 30, 2017 at Field of Dreams Youth Mentorship Facility in West Dallas. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

We also just reported that from 2017 to this year, Dallas rental rates rose "by less than 1 percent." And, "Apartment rents are actually falling in some parts of D-FW and areawide rents are up by some of the lowest percentages since the Great Recession."

But that is DHA's explanation: rising rents.

Which city officials interpret as: The DHA isn't doing a good job of managing the money it gets from HUD. Because it's never enough, housing advocates told me this week, yet in just six months, DHA came up $12 million short and was forced to stop issuing vouchers.

"We've got to fix the problem, and Troy didn't have any solutions," said Jennifer Staubach Gates, whose council district includes St. Jude Center. "They have a management issue, how they manage these dollars and allocate them."

Raquel Favela, Dallas' chief of economic development and neighborhood services, is leaving City Hall after less than two years. But she has provided the city with its first-ever housing policy — and a market value analysis meant to drive the new document. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

But even if a rise in rents was the reason, "somebody wasn't doing any forecasting," Favela said.

Favela knows about forecasting. She developed Dallas' first-ever real housing policy and delivered the Market Value Analysis meant to guide this city's growth.

She's also known as Dallas' HUD Whisperer, tasked with overseeing the feds' audits of this city's forever-broken housing department. She might have been able to get DHA more money — or, at least, "maximize the funding from HUD," the mayor said. But now she's leaving to pursue those vaunted other opportunities just as the DHA is coming to the city asking for dollars to cover its deficit, which Gates said "isn't sustainable."

The city's tight with the DHA. The mayor appoints its board of five — including Albert Black, who is running to replace Rawlings next year — though he has no control over it. And City Manager T.C. Broadnax's wife, Andrea, is a "leasing professional at DHA," Chen emailed when asked. Without being asked Chen added, "DHA hires talent solely on the basis of their qualifications for each role."

Dave Woodyard, Catholic Charities Dallas' CEO, said he found out in June that the Dallas Housing Authority wouldn't be providing the project-based housing vouchers it promised for St. Jude Center in northwest Dallas. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

From the sound of it, Favela wasn't tight with DHA.

She said DHA never responded when asked to participate in the writing of the housing policy — didn't even attend a single town hall or committee meeting. And, she said, Broussard wouldn't turn over voucher information when the market value analysis was being compiled, so she turned to HUD for the information. Favela also said she had to remind city officials that DHA is supposed to have its annual report approved by council every year — which hasn't happened in years.

"I don't know what to tell you," Favela said, "The housing problem won't be addressed in Dallas till someone gets serious about the housing authority."

Maybe that will happen now. Because there is no guarantee HUD will give Dallas more money next year, which means there is no guarantee more vouchers will become available beginning in January, when DHA's fiscal year begins. That means there's every chance people who want to get off the streets won't, even if there is room.

1 / 6A welcome sign inside the front lobby of St. Jude Center(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 2 / 6A sitting area inside St. Jude Center, on the third floor of the 104-unit facility(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 3 / 6The bathroom of a room inside St. Jude Center, a senior-living facility for homeless in northwest Dallas(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 4 / 6Doors to residents' rooms inside St. Jude Center(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 5 / 6For some of the residents of St. Center, this will be the first time they will have an address -- and a mailbox.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 6 / 6The library, provided by the stars of HGTV's Flip or Flop Fort Worth and the Property Brothers.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

"This is definitely a big deal," said Monica Hardman, head of Dallas' Office of Homeless Solutions. "You're well aware of the affordable housing crisis, and if you pile on the fact those who need assistance won't be able to get it from DHA, then it could potentially lead to a point where they become homeless."

This is a crisis. There's no other way to put it.

"This exacerbates a problem St. Jude was meant to fix," Woodyard said.

Said Rawlings, once Dallas' homeless czar, this proves that "our safety net is strung together in such a delicate way that if one string snaps it impacts a lot of other issues."

Look out below.