The homeless services nonprofit Haven for Hope is teaming up with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office to launch a new program to help people experiencing homelessness secure housing and employment.
In a video posted on Haven for Hope’s Facebook page, Terri Behling, Haven for Hope’s communication director, spoke with a Bexar County official about the initiative.
“Several years ago, we had an individual who was working services here at Haven. He had a criminal trespass on his record. He’d already had a conviction for it, and his case worker here at Haven reached out and asked if there was anything that we can do because he’s … disqualified from Section 8 housing benefits,” said Matt Howard, director of the district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
Howard went on to explain that his unit looked into the matter and discovered that the individual had actually not committed the crime. He was subsequently exonerated.
“Through that exoneration, we started talking about what we can do to keep this from happening in the future, to get people over to eligibility for housing or employment,” explained Howard. “And so from about two years of conversations and working with the elected DA … we developed what’s called the Community Court Program.”
The initiative gives people who might be experiencing homelessness an opportunity to get misdemeanors off their record by completing a diversionary program so that they are not prevented from finding gainful employment and a place of their own to live.
As reported by The Dallas Express, Haven for Hope functions as a “one-stop-shop” for homeless services, offering housing on the same campus it provides counseling, rehabilitation, and job skills development. It has previously been credited with a 77% decrease in homelessness in San Antonio.
Meanwhile, Dallas has been enduring a homelessness and vagrancy crisis, with more than 80% of respondents registering their concern in a poll, saying they were dissatisfied with the amount of homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling prevalent in the city. Relatedly, polling also indicates residents would support the City of Dallas trying out the “one-stop-shop” model.
