Dallas Calls on Other North Texas Cities to Provide Housing For The Homeless

During a quarterly update at the Dallas City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee on Monday, good news was shared about the progress made toward removing encampments and providing shelter for the homeless. But the conversation took a turn as city leaders demanded that other regional partners offer support. 

More Than 4,200 Homeless in Dallas And Collin Counties

Dallas and Collin counties have about 4,244 homeless residents, according to a 2023 Point in Time Count. More than 400 encampments exist within the Dallas city limits and many of the unhoused residents have been pushed into the city by other municipalities who aren’t sharing the responsibility of providing shelter and resources, council member Cara Mendelsohn said. 

Deputy City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said she heard loud and clear that the City of Dallas can’t carry the burden for all of North Texas. 

“We understand that we have to get to the action but we have to start with the conversation,” Tolbert said in Monday’s meeting of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee. “We hear this committee and we understand that [Dallas] cannot be the sole provider of supporting this ecosystem.”  

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Dallas City Council members say they are compassionate toward those who have experienced “a series of unfortunate events,” but they also have to answer to homeowners and business leaders who don’t want homeless individuals in their neighborhoods. 

In the March 25 meeting, HHS Committee, chairman Jesse Moreno said Dallas should be doing everything it can to house the unsheltered. 

“But we should also ensure that we are doing everything we can to help our residents and business owners who have been feeling the negative impact for years on quality of life,” he said. “For those who are waiting to be placed in housing, our sidewalks and our public spaces can no longer be that waiting room.” 

Housing The Homeless

Sarah Kahn, president and CEO of Housing Forward, noted the strides Dallas has made in rehousing and decreasing homelessness while national rates have soared. 

Housing Forward leveraged about $60 million in public funding into an additional $10 million in private funding with a goal of housing 2,700 individuals over a two-year period. 

“Since the REAL Time investment, we’re housing three times more people than we were in 2019 and 2020,” Kahn said. “We also saw a one-year reduction in unsheltered homelessness by 14 percent and a 32 percent reduction in chronic homelessness.”

Dallas also has secured sustainable performance-based funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

“The coalition is competing against 480 geographic areas for funding,” Kahn said. “We’ve gone from not being a great performer to one of the top performers in the country, which has allowed us to increase the amount of funding we bring in by 44 percent. That one funding stream brings in about $27 million annually for rehousing efforts.” 

Khan said Housing Forward and the Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions are responding to the need by promptly providing services and rehousing rather than just expanding shelter capacity, which does not address chronic homelessness. 

“Our rehousing has to outpace our inflow,” she said. 

Housing officials will provide their next quarterly report in June. 

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Calling All Municipal Partners

Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn said regardless of the numbers reflected in the Point In Time count, she’s actually seeing more homelessness in Dallas. 

“You’re not putting everyone into housing,” she said to Kahn. “There are people who don’t want it, and I think you know that’s true.” 

A resolution is long overdue outlining how North Texas municipalities should split up responsibilities related to sheltering and housing the homeless, the councilwoman added. 

“We are one of many cities within the [Continuum of Care] and it’s time for the other cities to start stepping up,” Mendelsohn said. “When we look at poverty rates, it’s very clear that Dallas is the highest poverty area within Dallas County and within our entire region. We can’t be the sole support for this.” 

Tolbert advised that a city managers’ roundtable convened with administrators from Dallas and Collin counties on March 7. 

“I think it was a good opportunity for us to share, as you stated, what Dallas is doing, and that we need for them to come to the table and support,” Tolbert said. “It was an eye-opener for us to really know what some of their needs are and what they currently believe they’re doing and how that’s not enough. Those conversations are going to continue.”

A mayor’s roundtable discussion will be the next step, Tolbert added.  

Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis said she was “getting a little worn out on the conversations.” 

Mesquite and Plano have no problem addressing the Dallas council about encampments but are not ponying up, she said. 

“To me, it doesn’t feel like a partnership,” she said. “While I feel like we should be the lead, I have an expectation that we should move some others to the table … We cannot sustain this.” 

Enforcement And Addiction Treatment 

Mendelsohn also took issue with a plan to add more patrolling, fencing, and signage around homeless encampments. 

“The word that was left off was enforcement,” she said. “We cannot fence off everything in our city. If we fenced off every encampment, our city would look terrible. We have to have enforcement and we have to have a way to get people who don’t want housing, who have a drug problem [some help]. They’re literally lying with their heads inches from the roadway … This is a terrible way for them to exist. They are living off petty crimes. That’s not being addressed. I have all the compassion in the world for the person who has had a series of unfortunate events and needs some help. The people who are so drugged out that they can’t make rational choices for themselves, we also have to help them.”  

Enforcement should include diversion, such as connecting the unhoused with their families, housing options, or treatment, she said. 

Other cities like Plano, Carrollton, Addison, and Richardson are pushing their homeless into Dallas, Mendelsohn added. 

“You know what they say on Nextdoor? They say, ‘Our city would never allow this. Our law enforcement pushed them out,’” she said. “Well, guess where they pushed them out to? Dallas. We don’t have a place to push them and I don’t think that’s necessarily the right thing to do anyhow. But we can’t just say we’re going to repeatedly try to develop relationships so we go encampment to housing when there are other possibilities.”