A former Dallas mayor is trying to help a man who used to be homeless after he was allegedly robbed of nearly $10,000 through the financial services app Chime.
Laura Miller, who served as mayor from 2002 to 2007, helped get Stanford Dixson back on his feet.
Through Miller’s group, The Ladder Project, which offers a “holistic approach to homelessness,” Dixson was able to find a place to live and secured a job at Texas Health Dallas, where he became a top employee.
Dixson started working six days a week and managed to save more than $10,000, reported The Dallas Morning News.
Dixson claimed that someone stole $9,500 from his account with Chime — a financial services app that provides banking tools but is technically not a bank.
A purported thief removed the funds in a series of three transfers, according to financial statements. The Chime account name of the alleged thief was “Jeffery C.” Withdrawals from Dixson’s account were each labeled “Transfer to Jeffery C.”
Dixson said he filed complaints with Chime and changed his password after each transfer. He then pulled the rest of his savings from Chime and moved the money to an actual bank account, which Miller helped him set up.
Miller spent two hours on the phone with Chime’s customer service department on Dixson’s behalf. Chime reportedly rejected Dixson’s fraud complaints, claiming that all three transactions were initiated from his phone.
“That’s bull,” Dixson told DMN. “I didn’t do that. That guy Jeffery? I don’t know him.”
In a statement to The Dallas Express, Chime said it “employ[s] rigorous fraud detection protocols” and has a team “made up of representatives who are specialized in handling these matters [who] responded to this member’s disputes in a timely manner.”
“We performed a thorough investigation and found no evidence of error or fraud,” the company concluded. “We stand behind the original decision which has been communicated to the member.”
Miller, however, was not satisfied with Chime’s response and claimed she would continue to work on the matter on behalf of Dixson.
“I am his advocate and will be pursuing this aggressively, relentlessly and noisily until it is resolved,” she told DMN.
Despite the subsequent turn in his story, Dixson’s resiliency in getting off the street represents a success amid Dallas’ homelessness and vagrancy crisis, which roughly 75% of residents consider a “major” problem, according to a satisfaction survey conducted by the City government.
Polling conducted by The Dallas Express has suggested the homelessness response method favored by most Dallas residents is similar to that of Haven for Hope in San Antonio.
Through a partnership with the City of San Antonio, Haven for Hope offers a “one-stop shop” for supportive services and emergency housing on a single campus, keeping the problems that stem from homelessness and vagrancy and their solutions centralized in one location. The City of Dallas has not yet pursued such a strategy.
Note: This article was updated on July 25, 2023, at 3:53 p.m. to add clarification and a statement from Chime.