Council Member Cara Mendelsohn took to the streets of North Dallas earlier this week to call attention to the homeless crisis in the city.
In an X thread, Mendelsohn (District 12) posted photos of the homeless encampments she visited underneath the Dallas North Tollway at various intersections along the route.
“About 2:30 today I chatted with these #homeless guys from their sofa under @TollTagNews Tollway & Briargrove. Nobody was interested in services or going to a shelter. Then their drug daddy came to see what was happening,” Mendelsohn posted on X.
At the Keller Springs intersection, Mendelsohn highlighted the dangers a homeless man faced sleeping so close to the roadway.
“One man sleeping and not responsive, the other didn’t want to talk. This is an example where the sleeping man is in so much danger as cars quickly make the U-turn under the tollway and through traffic is very close to his head in an accident-prone area,” Mendelsohn wrote.
The council member also apparently spoke to two young people at the Trinity Mills Parkway intersection who she said refused help when offered. Both were allegedly “drugged out,” didn’t have any ID, and were sleeping under a pink blanket under the tollway overpass, according to her post.
Mendelsohn also posted a picture of a homeless encampment constructed of shopping carts stuffed with personal items, set up just a few feet from fast-moving traffic.
“This is about 500 feet south of Arapaho @ tollway, on the northbound service road. Tried to talk to them but they were sleeping and non-responsive. This was particularly dangerous because to access this area they are clearly crossing 3 lanes of traffic in the middle of the road.
“The encampment is not visible until you are 3 feet away because of large shrubs. Traffic is moving 50-60 mph next to this encampment,” Mendelsohn noted.
Keep Dallas Safe Director Joseph Porter told DX that the Dallas City Council should take action and remove the vagrants that Mendelsohn called attention to on X.
“Councilwoman Mendelsohn, with this thread, showed clearly the problem that Dallas faces. We have vagrants rejecting city services and making our city more dangerous. The path forward is clear; City Council should take swift action to remove these vagrants,” Porter told DX.
A poll conducted by The Dallas Express showed that 63% of Dallas residents consider homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling to be a serious problem across their city.
Cities such as San Antonio have seen success with their Haven for Hope “one-stop-shop” approach to combating homelessness, which has been credited with a 77% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city’s downtown area. That approach has polled favorably among Dallas residents.