Homelessness is one area that Dallas residents believe is a “major problem” in need of improvement.
In a recent survey conducted by the City’s Budget and Management Services and the ETC Institute, residents rated homelessness (73%), infrastructure (60%), crime (52%), and drugs (51%) as “major” problems, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The findings are consistent with previous polling by The Dallas Express, which revealed that roughly 75% of Dallas residents think homelessness, vagrancy, and aggressive panhandling are “major” problems in the city. DX polling also found that respondents appeared to support the homeless services model used in San Antonio — Haven for Hope, which has been credited with a 77% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city’s downtown area.
KERA News reports on a new problem increasingly being faced in North Texas schools: homeless students. Here is the start of KERA’s report:
North Texas school districts are seeing an increase in students experiencing homelessness — even in affluent communities like Plano.
Students experiencing homelessness — or what James Thomas from Plano ISD calls “living in transition”— are eligible for services at school under the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The federal law aims to increase these students’ access to education.
Thomas is the community services coordinator for Plano ISD. He said the district identified 1,365 students living in transition the past school year, up from 1,001 the previous year. But he suspects there are more students whose families are in need who haven’t been identified.
“By large, most of them don’t want to be identified because they fear the CPS [Child Protective Services] may intervene to take their kids,” he said. “So they don’t want you to know they’re homeless.”
Thomas said finding these students helps the district provide them with services. Plano ISD provides McKinney Vento students with free breakfast, lunch and transportation to and from school. The district also has The Caring Place at its welcome enrollment center on the east side of Plano, where students and their families can get food, clothes and other supplies.