More than 1,000 requests have been submitted to the City of Dallas 311 homeless service call system in the last 30 days.
According to the City’s homeless service call dashboard, some 71 of 1,011 service requests are currently designated as open, with the biggest number (16) clocked in Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6.
“The Alley of this address is full of campers. It’s filthy and it smells. … I have made multiple reports and nothing has been done,” reads one service request, referring to a homeless encampment at 3039 Norwalk Ave. in District 6.
Previous polling conducted by The Dallas Express shows that roughly 75% of Dallas voters think homelessness, vagrancy, and aggressive panhandling are “major” problems in the city.
“3rd request to remove encampment that has now been in place 28 days. Encampment moves to different areas of the lawn but remains in same space with a large camping tent, folding table, bike rack, large barrel for fire and debris. Unsafe and directly adjacent to family homes with small children,” reads another request, this one referencing an encampment in Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2 at the intersection of Knight Street and Maple Avenue under the Dallas North Tollway.
The service request, which was submitted on Friday, was listed as “in progress” on Saturday afternoon.
Moreno has been adamant that solving Dallas’ homelessness problem is one of the most pressing issues facing City leaders.
“Homelessness is probably the number one [issue] that I [hear] from my constituents, from business owners, not only from my district but across the city,” said Moreno at a business and civic leader luncheon earlier this year, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“I’ve been impacted by homelessness, just like everyone in this room or the next,” he said. “An individual coming to my door, knocking at 4:00 a.m. — my wife about to open the door, not knowing what to expect — or loitering happening in front of my business.”
One open request in Council Member Jaynie Schultz’s District 11 claimed a group of homeless individuals were engaged in criminal activity.
“This crew is obviously stealing bicycles. It looks like a bike chop shop. Tents set up, fires burning,” reads the request regarding an encampment under the highway at the intersection of I-635 and U.S. 75.
Residents have signaled their support for the “one-stop-shop” homeless services model deployed by Haven for Hope in San Antonio. The model has been credited with a 77% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city’s downtown area.
Some local stakeholders want to bring the model to Dallas. However, whether the Dallas City Council will experiment with such an approach is unclear.