The editorial board of The Dallas Morning News published an op-ed on Sunday calling the City’s efforts to shut down homeless encampments in Downtown Dallas “progress,” despite the citywide scale of the problem.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Office of Homeless Solutions fields hundreds of 311 reports concerning homeless encampments every month. Recently, more than 1,100 were clocked within a 30-day window. And while homeless encampments and vagrancy in the Central Business District is a big problem, the encampment complaints span the breadth of the city.
Polling shows that 75% of Dallas residents think homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling are “major” problems throughout the city.
“Large, visible homelessness encampments in public spaces pose serious challenges throughout the city, including the most visible, embarrassing encampments on the doorsteps of the downtown library and City Hall. The city’s inability to address this reality in a meaningful way threatened to diminish significant public and private sector investments and the planned redevelopment of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center,” DMN’s editorial board acknowledged.
“Statistically, the region is making progress against homelessness. Based on the latest point-in-time count conducted earlier this year, homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties declined for the third consecutive year, and Housing Forward, which coordinates homelessness strategies in Dallas and Collin counties, announced a goal to cut street homelessness by 50% by 2026 from an all-time high posted in 2021,” the editorial board added.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, officials and experts have cast doubt on the accuracy of point-in-time counts.
Following the release of the most recent figures last month, Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) said:
“I don’t think the point-in-time count was accurate. I believe homelessness has actually increased significantly. In the five years I’ve been on council, I have seen it in my own district. While I do believe we’re working on at least the solution in two places … I don’t think we’ve been successful in that, and we must be. It’s terrible how people are living. I don’t think your providers believe you have decreased homelessness, either. I’m skeptical of the data we’re seeing.”
Despite polling that indicates Dallas residents would support a “one-stop-shop” model for homeless services, such as what the nonprofit Haven for Hope employs in San Antonio, City officials have yet to experiment with such a model.
Some local stakeholders are looking to bring the model to Dallas, but it remains to be seen whether City officials will embrace the approach.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Haven for Hope provides social services like drug counseling, drug training, and transitional housing all on a single campus where it also maintains transitional housing for the homeless. Its “one-stop-shop” model has been credited with reducing unsheltered homelessness in San Antonio’s downtown area by 77%.