Recent efforts promise to improve the homeless crisis in downtown Dallas, but a local shelter is seeing thousands more people in need — suggesting the problem could be worsening elsewhere in the city.
“We’ve only seen increases every year in the number of folks that we’re engaging,” said Dr. David Woody, president of downtown-area shelter The Bridge, to The Dallas Express.
The nonprofit Housing Forward’s “point-in-time counts” across Dallas and Collin counties show the number of homeless people falling from 4,570 to 3,718 between 2021 and 2024. But Woody said the PIT counts are simply a “snapshot” of homeless people in public areas, taken at the same time each year.
“It’s virtually impossible in this community to identify all the folks who are unsheltered, who are unhoused,” Woody said. “So that’s merely a snapshot from a research perspective.”
The Bridge engaged 6,350 “unique individuals” in fiscal year 2023, according to Woody. In 2024, the shelter engaged 7,234 homeless people. And as of May, Woody said, The Bridge was “on the way to see probably as many as 8,000 people this year.”
People experiencing homelessness often camp out in places like sidewalks, convenience stores, or public parks across the city, as The Dallas Express previously reported. Certain areas, like Cadiz Street and S. St. Paul Street, have turned into homeless hotspots in the past.
The Bridge and Citywide Shelter Response
Woody said The Bridge works with shelters across Dallas, such as the Austin Street Center, the Salvation Army, and the Union Gospel Mission, to get people off the street.
The Bridge offers “low-barrier shelter services” to help people build “an exit strategy from homelessness,” according to Woody. The shelter aims to be a “one-stop shop” for getting homeless people off the street.
“We want to offer every service necessary that would move a person from sleeping on the concrete into a position to have a key to a housing solution that they can sustain,” he explained.
The Bridge offers showers and restrooms, clothing, and three meals daily—nearly 400 people for breakfast and lunch, and nearly 325 for dinner. The shelter also offers a library, barber shop, and hair salon, a laundromat, and even a kennel for people with a “companion canine.” It also has three care management teams, who work with people on an “exit strategy.”
The Bridge also partners with groups like Parkland Hospital for medical services, Metrocare Services for mental health, and Legal Aid of North Texas to resolve legal issues that could be barriers to employment, according to Woody.
He said some shelters help homeless people at night, then put them back out on the street during the day, only for them to return.
“What makes The Bridge different than other shelters here in Dallas is that we’re not just offering folks accommodations during the evening,” Woody said, adding that The Bridge offers “day shelter experiences that hopefully craft that exit from homelessness.”
The Bridge is currently at capacity for overnight shelter, according to Woody. To accommodate rising numbers of homeless people, the shelter has had to “think critically” about ways to expand sleeping arrangements on its campus. He also said the group has been advocating for more “availability of night shelter” in Dallas and Collin counties.
Downtown Improvements: Safe In The City
Downtown Dallas, Inc. joined the City of Dallas and Dallas Citizens Council to launch the “Safe In The City” initiative in May, as The Dallas Express previously reported. The mission emphasizes law enforcement and rehousing, aiming to improve homelessness and crime in the Central Business District, or CBD.
Officials send homeless people to The Bridge as part of this initiative to help get them off the streets. “They’re tracking the numbers, and everyone is talking about a significant decrease in the number of unsheltered folks who are sleeping in parks, in nooks and crannies, in front of businesses,” Woody said.
Ashford Inc. Senior Managing Director Mark Nunneley told The Dallas Express he has been distributing homeless reports on the city’s Central Business District twice per month for the past year. The reports show that homelessness has been decreasing in the district recently.
The most recent report, obtained by The Dallas Express, shows the number of homeless people in the Central Business District falling from 209 in late March to 84 in the most recent report. These numbers are significantly down from previous highs last year.
Nunneley said the new “Safe In The City” initiative seems promising, and “people really seem to be focused.”
He previously told The Dallas Express that when he sees an encampment, or a homeless person lying down on a sidewalk, he reports it through DDI’s new See Say app, which helps users report “non-emergency issues” to the “Downtown Security, Homeless Outreach, and Clean Team.”
“I’ve seen some pretty good success as soon as I report it, the DDI security folks will come and address it,” he said. Recently, he said security told a homeless person to get off the sidewalk; the individual walked down the street only to lie down again.
“It’s not good enough to tell them to get up and leave, you’ve got to take them somewhere. They need to be taken to The Bridge,” Nunneley said. “They’ve got to go somewhere. It is imperative that we have a place they can be taken that can accommodate more volume, in order to clean up our streets and get them the help they need.”
He also said the downtown public library across from City Hall had been a “homeless haven” until recently. As The Dallas Express previously reported, DDI cannot respond on the property since it belongs to the city. However, the city has apparently taken a more proactive approach, placing officers on site to deter people experiencing homelessness.
Housing Forward’s “Street to Home” program has brought some apparent success, according to Nunneley.
“These are good initiatives,” he said. “Unfortunately, the initiatives are privately limited to the CBD.”
Citywide Trends and Future Outlook
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions and Housing Forward, but did not hear back in time for publication.
There has been an apparent “dramatic increase in homelessness” in “each of our city council districts,” according to Woody. As The Dallas Express reported, calls about homelessness to the City of Dallas’ 311 line have risen 45 percent in three years.
“The hope is that, by tracking exactly the intervention methods, and engagement methods, and the institutions that have come together to have an impact on the Central Business District, that those kinds of initiatives will then be farmed out to other districts to be able to address that,” Woody said.
Woody invited people to volunteer at The Bridge if they wanted to help solve homelessness.
“We would love for folks to come and help,” he said. “There’s no better way to get a better understanding of homelessness.”