Local activists are working to fight crime, homelessness, and vagrancy as such issues continue to pose a “public safety hazard” in Downtown Dallas.
The activist group Urban Specialists wants to reduce crime by “positively impact[ing] urban communities.” It aims to “recruit, train, and deploy changemakers from various backgrounds, and across a variety of pathways to be forces for good in their communities.”
“We’re tired of people killing each other, committing crimes against each other. It has to stop,” said Antong Lucky, president and CEO of Urban Specialists, per WFAA.
“When I hear about some of the incidents that happen, my heart gets sad because I truly want our city to be a city free of violence and crime,” he said. “We can end this violence that we see in our city.”
City officials, including Mayor Eric Johnson, maintain that violent crime is falling. However, some local activists who work with the community question these assertions.
“Simply put, crime is not on the decline,” declared Adekoye Adams in a statement to The Dallas Express.
Adams serves as head of outreach for Dallas Justice Now, an activist group dedicated to ending racism in the city.
Crime rates in Downtown Dallas are notably high compared to Fort Worth’s downtown area, which is patrolled by a dedicated police unit in tandem with private security.
Adams said the City of Dallas “is not doing nearly enough to handle the reality of this.”
“We need to reassess how we treat those who commit crimes because they are sick with addiction,” Adams said. “Why? Because they don’t have as much choice as we think they should, so throwing them in jail with violent felons and dealers only worsens it.”
Adams also noted that crime and homelessness are issues that cannot be separated.
“They feed off of each other,” he told The Dallas Express, noting that many homeless people and vagrants are addicted to illicit drugs. “Sustaining a drug habit often requires that … people participate in … crime.”
Adams argued that “people abusing hard drugs and breaking the law to support [their] habit” must be “mandated to drug and alcohol abuse centers for the common good.”
He clarified that he believes addicts “need treatment and therapy” as they can pose “a public safety hazard” but should not be thrown in jail with “violent felons.”
“Letting them go on with their lives introduces lawlessness based on this fiction of the crimes being ‘victimless,’ i.e. ‘they aren’t hurting anyone’, as they take refuge under highways and parks that lead to vagrancy with toxic potential,” he continued. “I don’t think we should be forced to witness people succumbing to alcohol, crack, or opioid addiction.”
Still, the Dallas Police Department is currently short around 900 of the 4,000 police officers recommended by a City analysis that contends optimal staffing levels require about three officers for every 1,000 residents.
Alongside crime, homelessness and vagrancy also continue to be a “major” problem for most Dallas residents, according to a recent satisfaction survey from the City.
While having tried a number of homeless mitigation strategies, Dallas has yet to adopt the approach taken by Haven for Hope through its partnership with the City of San Antonio: a “one-stop shop” for housing and supportive services that centralizes them in a single location and avoids the challenges of maintaining several facilities across the city.
The strategy contains both the problems and solutions associated with homelessness and vagrancy in a single geographic area and has polled favorably among Dallas voters.