On Wednesday, the City of Dallas approved $2.5 million in funding for a program created by Housing Forward.
The City Council voted to approve $2.5 million in funding for Housing Forward’s “Street to Home” program, reported NBC 5 DFW. This local nonprofit has helped Dallas and Collin counties manage homelessness.
City Manager Kim Tolbert said this funding would be used to help those who need immediate housing. However, “some additional partnerships” will likely be needed to support the program in the future, per NBC 5.
This Street to Home program first began in July and targeted three portions of downtown Dallas. Through outreach and support, it helped provide housing to more than 100 people, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Tolbert further claimed that this program had achieved its intended purpose and that approval of the funding would not affect the funding of any other City programs.
“That work does have proven results, and we’ve demonstrated that,” she said, per DMN.
Although most of the vote favored approving the funding, Mayor Eric Johnson and Council Members Jesse Moreno and Cara Mendelsohn voted against the initiative, per NBC 5.
Moreno said that this program is not doing enough to warrant the funding and attempted to get the number reduced to just $1 million.
“We can go outside right now and see our chronically homeless still suffering on our streets that were not helped through housing first,” he said, per NBC 5.
Council Member Chad West disputed these claims and said Dallas is “one of the cities [where] that’s actually working,” and the program should not be cut to fund other less effective projects.
“We’ve got problems. It’s not perfect, but you don’t cut what’s actually working in your system to fix those and find other sources,” West added, according to DMN.
Discussion on the Street to Home initiative will continue in the spring when the City Council will consider whether to approve another $3.1 million in funding.