The All Neighbors Coalition, a network of 130 organizations throughout Dallas and Collin counties aiming to address the region’s crisis of homelessness and vagrancy, will receive $22 million in additional taxpayer funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
This amount marks a 20% increase in the yearly funding the coalition gets from HUD through the “Continuum of Care” program.
“This annual competitive funding process adds necessary financial capacity to our overall community, allowing us to further many of our system goals by providing housing and supportive services for our unhoused neighbors,” said Joli Robinson, per The Dallas Morning News.
Robinson serves as president and CEO of Housing Forward, the leading homelessness response nonprofit for Dallas and Collin counties.
She said these additional funds would go toward more supportive services, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing.
HUD announced in a March 28 press release that it will spend $2.8 billion of taxpayer money to fund homeless service organizations nationwide this year.
“Helping people move into stable housing from temporary shelters and encampments on the streets is essential to ending homelessness,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in the press release.
“Working with our local partners, these Continuum of Care program grants deliver communities the resources they need,” she continued. “Together, we can work toward a world where no one experiences the tragedy and indignity of homelessness.”
This funding comes as many Dallas residents likely to vote in municipal elections express the belief that homelessness and vagrancy are serious problems in the area, according to a survey conducted by The Dallas Express in March.
While taxpayer funds continue to be poured into homelessness responses, the approach favored by many locals has yet to be tried in Dallas.
That approach is a one-stop shop for people without housing, with supportive services in a contained geographic area. This strategy has proven successful in San Antonio as employed by the nonprofit Haven for Hope.
While Dallas has several initiatives meant to alleviate the burden of homelessness on local communities, the City has under-delivered, as argued recently by Council Member Cara Mendelsohn.
Mendelsohn said during a Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee meeting last month that the city is “not doing the enforcement that’s necessary” on homeless encampments, causing her constituents to become “extremely frustrated.”
Dallas’ Office of Homeless Solutions will spend roughly $15 million of City money this fiscal year under the City budget, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.