Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced on Tuesday the formation of a task force to address homelessness, a plan he first revealed in his State of the City address last year.
The Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, Organizations, Policies and Encampments (HOPE) will be responsible for finding and developing concrete solutions to reduce homelessness in Dallas and recommending those solutions to the City government.
The task force’s report of recommendations will be due on June 15.
Johnson emphasized that this task force will be dissolved when its mission is complete and will not become another layer of government bureaucracy.
Though the City’s Office of Homeless Solutions is set to spend about $15 million of taxpayer money this fiscal year, polling conducted by The Dallas Express suggests a clear majority of citizens still believe homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling are serious problems in Dallas.
Further polling and reporting indicate that Dallas residents in general, as well as homeless and vagrant people in particular, favor a “one-stop shop” on the model of San Antonio’s Haven for Hope that would concentrate City homeless services in a single location.
In the meantime, some stakeholders view the mayor’s new task force as a step in the right direction.
“It’s just an awesome opportunity for us to increase the collaboration that’s already happening within our system,” Joli Robinson, CEO of Housing Forward, told The Dallas Express. “It’s always refreshing when one of our elected officials, our mayors, also stand in the gap and really have an eye towards, ‘What are all of the solutions that we can throw at such a complex issue such as homelessness?'”
Dallas County Commissioner Theresa Daniel, who serves as the partnership chair of the Dallas Area Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness, told The Dallas Express she looks forward to seeing what the “charge” of the task force is going to be.
“How does it fit in with what the City of Dallas is doing as well as Dallas County and so many of the other cities?” Daniel asked.
When asked whether the partnership will collaborate with the mayor’s new task force, Commissioner Daniel said, “To me, that’s the only way it makes sense.”
Johnson appointed Peter Brodsky, chair of Housing Forward; Betty Culbreath, chair of the Dallas Housing Authority and the former director of Dallas County Health and Human Services; and Ellen Magnis, president and CEO of Family Gateway, as co-chairs of the task force.
Johnson said that, while Dallas has made progress in its fight against homelessness through programs such as the Dallas R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative, the City cannot accept that progress as “good enough.”
“Like every major city in the United States, Dallas has been affected by increasing homelessness in recent years,” the mayor said at City Hall on Tuesday, explaining that homelessness is a complex problem of economic hardship, substance abuse, mental illness, public safety, criminal justice, and public health.
Johnson noted that homelessness affects not only the individuals who are homeless but also the people of the city as a whole.
“We also have residents of this city who are also trying to get by and do right by their families and their communities who want to go to work every day and come home,” he said.
“Unfortunately, they see growing numbers of encampments in their neighborhoods. They see people passed out on the sidewalks. They see people walking naked on the streets. They see trash. They see waste. They see tents pitched on our freeway underpasses.”
“They want and they expect to live in a city that does not tolerate, and certainly does not facilitate, disorder,” the mayor continued.
“We will ensure that Dallas is addressing homelessness in a way that is smart, compassionate, and considerate of the health, safety, and quality of life of all of our residents and businesses.”
Johnson also noted that homelessness is not a problem for the City government alone to solve and will require collaboration from the County, nonprofits, and the people of Dallas.
