Council Member Jesse Moreno of District 2 recently reminded the people of Dallas that the City does not recommend giving things directly to individuals experiencing homelessness.
“Reminder that feeding or giving clothes directly to our unsheltered residents does not protect them from the elements,” Moreno posted on X, the social media platform formerly Twitter. “We need solutions that will help get people into shelters and housing.”
“Feeding folks on the street does not protect them from the elements,” Moreno continued.
Moreno urged residents to give responsibly and donate to homeless shelters to empower them to assist those in need.
The City of Dallas’ Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS) has an entire Give Responsibly campaign dedicated to promoting the message that Dallasites who want to help unsheltered residents should give their time, money, and resources to homeless service providers rather than directly to vagrants and those experiencing homelessness.
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, the City installed signs across Dallas to promote this campaign and educate residents about problems allegedly associated with street charity.
Additionally, OHS community liaison Marci Jackson noted that giving directly to those experiencing homelessness can actually be harmful to both unsheltered individuals and the community as a whole, as it can encourage vagrants to continue living on the street and deter customers from visiting nearby businesses, as previously reported to The Dallas Express.
OHS Director Christine Crossley has even said that giving food directly to people experiencing homelessness can lead to traffic light outages.
During August’s online community listening session, Crossley explained that the seemingly far-fetched connection between street charity and traffic light outages was actually plausible, as reported previously by The Dallas Express.
“Some of the street light outages that you see across Dallas that are annoying you because now you’re sitting in 20 minutes of traffic at a four-way stop are because people have been leaving food, and the food attracts rodents that chew through the wiring. It really has larger impacts that I think people don’t think about,” Crossley said.
Recent polling conducted by The Dallas Express found that 75% of City residents are frustrated with homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling in their neighborhoods and throughout Dallas.
Meanwhile, San Antonio’s Haven for Hope has been credited with reducing homelessness by 77% since it became operational in June 2010. Haven for Hope utilizes a “one-stop-shop” model in which housing and supportive services, such as counseling, addiction treatment, and job skills development, are offered on a single campus.
The model has polled favorably among Dallas residents. Mayor Eric Johnson even visited Haven for Hope in August, but it remains to be seen whether City officials will pursue a similar approach.
