Housing Forward, a non-profit founded in 2002 as the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, held its annual State of Homelessness Address on Thursday morning at the Communities Foundation of Texas.
Housing Forward’s stated mission is “to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in Dallas and Collin Counties.”
During the presentation, Housing Forward President and CEO Joli Angel Robinson outlined the organization’s community goals: “To effectively end veteran homelessness, significantly reduce chronic unsheltered homelessness, and significantly reduce family and youth homelessness.”
Each year the organization, with the help of volunteers, conducts a point-in-time count of the homeless in Dallas and Collin counties to assess the need for services in the area. This year, the census was taken on January 26, with the assistance of more than 850 volunteers.
From 2018 to 2023, the homeless population grew from 4,121 to 4,244, representing a 2.4% increase, according to the count. However, from the high of 2021 to 2023, there was a reported drop in the homeless population from 4,570 to 4,244.
Yet if the overall homeless population decreased according to this particular metric, chronic homelessness also spiked in 2022 according to the same data. In 2021 the volunteer census found 327 chronically homeless people living in Dallas and Collin counties. That population ballooned to 1,029 in 2022, representing a 214% increase.
Robinson said the numbers were a “clear signal that [we] needed a targeted intervention and solution-focused response for our neighbors experiencing unsheltered homelessness — the most visible form of homelessness.”
Robinson said that the organization deployed public and private funding, much of which was taxpayer money from the American Rescue Plan, to house 1,871 homeless people. According to the organization’s presentation, public and private spending combined for a total commitment of $72 million for the housing programs.
Robinson suggests those efforts led to a 14% decline in unsheltered homelessness between 2022 and 2023, reversing skyrocketing numbers she claimed were a result of reduced outreach to the homeless as government employees worked from home during the COVID-19 government shutdowns, among other factors.
Chronic homelessness was reduced between 2022 and 2023 by 32%, a trend Robinson claimed proves the program’s success.
“These findings underscore the importance of continuing to invest in permanent rather than temporary solutions. Homelessness decreased in areas where targeted rehousing investments were made,” she said.
The report also provided a demographic analysis of the homeless population in Dallas and Collin counties. African Americans represented 59.5% of the homeless population, Hispanics represented 14.73%, Caucasians represented 20.07%, while all other demographic groups combined represented just over 5%.
Housing Forward reports that its engagement has closed 11 permanent encampments — sometimes called “tent cities” — and permanently housed 1,871 individuals since October 2021. However, it did not provide any data on the total number of encampments in its service area.
The organization has set a target of rehousing 6,000 individuals by 2025, which would radically reduce the number of homeless in Dallas and Collin Counties.
Polling from Downtown Dallas Inc. has found that more than 75% of downtown residents continue to believe that “homelessness is a significant issue” in Dallas.
Similarly, a recent survey by The Dallas Express found that more than half of likely Dallas County voters view homelessness and vagrancy as serious problems.
These figures persist despite the City spending millions of taxpayer dollars every year on homelessness and vagrancy initiatives, and at least some suggestion by the data above that $72 million spent on housing solutions should result in more than 1,871 being permanently housed over a two-year span.
Despite disagreements over the best fiscal approach to homelessness, the addresses’ presenters agreed that the City’s slow permitting process is preventing “affordable housing” construction.
As The Dallas Express has reported, developers have battled with City Manager T.C. Broadnax over his office’s efficiency, which has dramatically slowed permits for new constructions.
Now, “affordable housing” advocates share that perspective and believe Broadnax’s mismanagement is fueling the homelessness crisis.
Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative Dr. Cullum Clark argued that while there was a national housing crisis, Dallas in particular has underperformed.
“… [L]and use rules and housing market and permitting complexities that make it impossible or very difficult to build new housing or to maintain naturally affordable older housing,” he said.
“All those rules have been progressively getting worse for at 30 years in American cities. In Dallas, I think we can find abundant evidence to show, that among big cities, I’m sorry to say, an underperformed.”
Metrocare’s Chief Housing Officer Ikenna Mogbo agreed with Dr. Clark’s assessment and advocated changes to zoning laws.
“We have to change our zoning laws to allow for densities so we can have single room occupancy development,” he added. “I don’t think there has been a single-room occupancy development in Dallas in at least a decade or two.”
One potential solution is the one-stop-shop model of San Antonio’s Haven for Hope, which provides homeless services in a confined geographic area. Further polling conducted by The Dallas Express indicates that a majority of Dallas residents support such an alternative.
Note: This story was updated on April 17, 2023, at 3:03 p.m. to include additional information.