Dallas police carried out “enforcement efforts” at homeless encampments across the city Thursday, the department said, drawing criticism from nonprofit service providers who cast the operations as dehumanizing and ill-timed ahead of a stretch of freezing weather.
Elizabeth Jordan, founder of The Human Impact, a South Dallas nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness, said she arrived at her downtown location about 8:30 a.m. to find more than a dozen Dallas police vehicles lining a nearby street.
Outside her rented space near the 1700 block of S. Good Latimer Expressway, Jordan said, officers set up a yellow-taped perimeter and rounded up people living nearby. She said she counted dozens of people with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. Some were driven away in white city vans.
“To line people up in a row,” Jordan told The Dallas Morning News as she stood outside her nonprofit, “it’s such a humiliating, dehumanizing way to treat other people.” The operation was carried out by the police department’s Homeless Outreach Team, formed in October. Officers offered people connections to services and rides to warming centers, according to police spokesperson Allison Hudson.
Crime in The News
The detentions stemmed from checks for outstanding warrants, Hudson said. The department was not immediately able to provide the number of arrests or transports made Thursday morning.
“This work is centered on connecting people experiencing homelessness with services, while also addressing public safety and quality-of-life concerns,” Hudson said in a statement. She added that multiple warnings were issued ahead of closing the encampments. The News could not independently verify that.
Street to Home initiative
In 2024, the city of Dallas partnered with area nonprofits, led by Housing Forward, the lead agency charged with addressing homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties, to launch a nationally proven method of decommissioning encampments humanely and effectively.
Efforts to close campsites in the past often lacked quick pathways into housing, strategic cooperation between agencies and a closure maintenance plan. The Street-to-Home initiative closed the gap in those areas, according to Housing Forward, housing hundreds while cleaning up longtime encampments.
The nonprofit deferred questions to DPD when reached by email Thursday, as it was a department operation that didn’t involve Housing Forward. About 1,000 volunteers from Housing Forward and the All Neighbors Coalition, among others, will scour the streets of Dallas and Collin counties on Thursday evening to conduct the federally mandated, annual point-in-time count ahead of the winter storm this weekend.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s survey is designed to capture a snapshot of how many people are living in shelters or on the streets on any given night. It’s meant to capture trends over time, not the full scope of homelessness in an area.
Housing Forward President and CEO Sarah Kahn said in a statement to The News that the homelessness response system has transformed since 2021, creating more efficient and lasting pathways for people out of homelessness. Since then, street homelessness has declined by 28%.
Despite the gains, North Texas still has “a long way to go” before solving homelessness, she added.
“That’s why the City of Dallas and Dallas County recently voted to invest $20 million in the Street to Home initiative to accelerate this progress—sending a strong signal that this effort expands solutions to street homelessness and restores health and safety for all of our neighbors,” Kahn said. “This weekend’s storm reinforces the vital importance of our shared work, fueled by the City and County’s recent investments.”
Preparing for winter storm
Wayne Walker, CEO and pastor at faith-based nonprofit OurCalling, spoke to The News Thursday as he worked with a team to prepare the 1,000-bed inclement weather shelter the city expects to open Friday afternoon at Fair Park.
“It’s sad that we don’t have enough beds for everybody to get into a safe shelter or housing,” Walker said. “Unfortunately, when people are told to go to a shelter, and the shelter turns them away because there’s no more room, they’re stuck in the middle.”
A lack of resources for people experiencing homelessness is the sad reality confronting cities like Dallas, Walker said.
“It’s inhumane to criminalize someone for existing and cruel to not give them a place to exist that is safe and out of harm’s way,” he added. “It’s especially cruel that this is happening a day before our city is about to hit freezing temperatures for over a week.”
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