Members of the Dallas City Council heard from local non-profit groups about their efforts to assist people at risk of eviction during the recent Workforce, Education, and Equity Committee meeting.
Representatives from nonprofits United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and UpTogether delivered a presentation on their Targeted Eviction Prevention Program (TEPP) to the committee.
TEPP seeks to help families at high risk of eviction stay in their homes, thereby enabling children to stay in the same schools rather than switching mid-year, according to the presentation.
United Way worked with the nonprofit Child Poverty Action Lab to “analyze eviction data and identify the highest concentration of eviction filings” and compare that data to “elementary schools with high rates of middle-of-year student moves.”
After that analysis, United Way focused on families with children at Billy Dade Middle School, Joseph J. Rhoads Learning Center, Dr. Martin Luther King Learning Center, Elisha M. Pease Elementary School, and J.N. Ervin Elementary School.
City staff clarified that taxpayer funds are not currently going to this program.
“Part of the program is letting families make their own decisions and have self-determination,” suggested Ashley Brundage, executive director of housing stability and senior vice president of community impact at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.
Some council members expressed support for this program and the prospect of the City of Dallas adopting a similar program.
Councilmember Casey Thomas stated, “If we can be able to provide funding to allow people to stay in their homes, we don’t have to worry about people being homeless,” he claimed. Yet, there is evidence disputing the idea that cash handouts such as those in the programs above are an effective tool to fight poverty or sustainably keep individuals in their homes.
The city council has struggled to effectively address the growing problem of homelessness and vagrancy, and polls show Dallas residents see it as a growing problem. A survey conducted by Downtown Dallas Inc. found that 76% of respondents felt that homelessness downtown was a problem.
Similarly, a recent poll conducted by The Dallas Express suggested that 63% of Dallas residents from across the city considered “homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling” to be serious problems.
One data-based approach championed by the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center (DEAC) suggests that there are more effective mechanisms to assist tenants, as the current status of annual eviction proceedings in Dallas exceeded 50,000 this year.
In 2022, over 53,000 eviction proceedings have been initiated across Dallas County, with the total value of the filings exceeding $127,000,000 as of September 7.
Out of these, the judges ruled in favor of the landlord in 72% of eviction cases and in favor of the tenant in only 3% of cases, according to a report by the Child Action Poverty Lab provided to The Dallas Express by the DEAC.
When the tenant had no legal representation, the judge ruled in favor of the landlord 79% of the time. However, when the tenant did have an attorney present, that number plummeted to only 10%.
Furthermore, the average time spent on eviction cases in the Justice of Peace courts was less than four minutes per case.
Mark Melton, the founder of DEAC, suggested to The Dallas Express that roughly “85% of the judgments in favor of landlords would likely have gone the other way” had an attorney been present to represent the tenant.
While organizations such as United Way and UpTogether propose giving unrestricted cash to tenants to prevent evictions, DEAC instead suggests that providing counsel to people facing eviction would ensure the legal process was followed and more appropriately balance the rights of the landlord and tenant.