{"id":27083,"date":"2025-06-30T12:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27083\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T12:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:21:07","slug":"dallas-homelessness-response-needs-clearer-goals-audit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27083\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas\u2019 homelessness response needs clearer goals, audit says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas\u2019 strategy to end homelessness needs clearer goals and more oversight to accurately measure its efforts, a city audit found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The review also raised concerns about the reliability and transparency of the area\u2019s annual count of people who are homeless<\/a>, saying that the method used doesn\u2019t completely align with federal standards. The audit, completed by Weaver and Tidwell in February, was released by the city auditor\u2019s office this month.<\/p>\n

The city doesn\u2019t always verify the data it receives from contractors about their work in addressing homelessness and required documents were missing from monthly reimbursement reports, according to auditors. <\/p>\n

Some contractors didn\u2019t submit required documents or regular performance data, and the city doesn\u2019t always verify the data it receives, according to auditors. In one case, only 2% of the city\u2019s money allocated for two contracts totaling more than $5 million for subsidized supportive housing efforts was spent due to the delays in reporting and documentation.<\/p>\n

Political Points<\/p>\n

Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

Related:Dallas to give Housing Forward $3 million to help get apartments for homeless people<\/a><\/p>\n

The audit evaluated efforts spearheaded by the city\u2019s Office of Homeless Solutions and Housing Forward from October 2022 to February 2024. Housing Forward is the lead agency coordinating homelessness response in Dallas and Collin counties and is responsible for conducting the annual local Point-in-Time count. The PIT count is a yearly nationwide effort mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to count the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbsent of strategy coordination and quantifiable outcomes, the city is limited in its ability to define and validate success to holistically measure progress on its strategic initiatives as a whole,\u201d the audit said.<\/p>\n

Auditors made 13 recommendations to the city aimed at addressing procedural gaps and improving the effectiveness of local efforts. The audit also made other recommendations to improve Housing Forward\u2019s Point-in-Time count practices.<\/p>\n

Dallas officials agreed to 11 of the suggestions, but rejected 2 others.<\/p>\n

The audit recommended the city department to work with Housing Forward and the City Council\u2019s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee to align strategies and regularly review them to make sure they are complementary. The second recommendation was for the city to set clear, measurable goals to define success and to more vividly <\/b>show progress in reducing homelessness.<\/p>\n

In a June 13 letter to City Auditor Mark Swann, City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said the homeless solutions office already works with Housing Forward to make sure their strategies are closely aligned with guidelines set by the City Council. But she pointed to \u201cfundamental differences\u201d between the city department and the regional agency that prevent them from a deeper level of coordination.<\/p>\n

On declining the second recommendation, Tolbert said the city\u2019s homeless solutions office already uses \u201ca diverse set of data points\u201d to determine the success of its strategies. The current method allows the city to do a more thorough evaluation of how programs are impacting efforts beyond just contractual data, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Office of Homeless Solutions is working diligently to finalize the draft procedures, test the procedures, formalize them, and train staff on the final revised standard operating procedures,\u201d Tolbert wrote.<\/p>\n

Sarah Kahn, Housing Forward\u2019s president and CEO, told The Dallas Morning News that her group leads a coalition of 150 organizations dedicated to ending homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties. She said they have crafted a Point-in-Time count method that is \u201cinformed by subject matter experts at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and follow strict HUD regulations.\u201d She said plans for the count are reviewed yearly, and they welcome any other recommendations from Weaver and Tidwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coalition builds in several measures to ensure the count is as accurate as possible; however, everyone agrees that the PIT will never capture every single person experiencing homelessness,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cThe coalition uses the PIT to measure trends and leverages a variety of other sources to measure the full health of the homeless response system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing Forward announced a count of 3,718 people experiencing homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties in 2024<\/a>, down from recent years. The agency announced this year\u2019s Point-in-Time count was 3,541<\/a>, the lowest total since 2015.<\/p>\n

Federal and local officials announced last May that the region had met national benchmarks to be recognized as having \u201ceffectively ended\u201d veteran homelessness<\/a>. But the audit raised concerns about the Point-in-Time count data used to track these outcomes. While the review noted that Housing Forward complies with most requirements outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the audit identified some gaps in the 2024 count.<\/p>\n

HUD requires collecting and reporting data on veteran survey respondents, but according to the audit, Housing Forward didn\u2019t make it mandatory for volunteers conducting the count to ask people about their veteran status. The agency reported 83% of the homeless people surveyed answered whether they were military veterans, but the audit said Housing Forward didn\u2019t provide any data to support the metric.<\/p>\n

The audit also found Housing Forward\u2019s plan for conducting the count and other documents didn\u2019t fully align with HUD\u2019s guidelines, which include clearly defining roles and responsibilities. Planning for the count was scattered across spreadsheets, emails and other materials rather than being consolidated into a single planning document or tool, for instance.<\/p>\n

The audit noted that even how long it took to conduct the PIT count last year is unclear. Although last year\u2019s count was conducted on Jan. 25, 2024, there\u2019s no record of what time the count started or ended, and no documentation showing that all known areas of homelessness were thoroughly canvassed.<\/p>\n

According to auditors, Housing Forward doesn\u2019t provide maps or geographic details within Dallas and Collin counties showing where homelessness is concentrated, doesn\u2019t formally report challenges, resource gaps or any inherent limitations of their count methods, thus \u201creducing the community\u2019s understanding of how to interpret the PIT count results.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audit states that these features are available in PIT counts in the Fort Worth, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle areas. While other cities have adopted methods to improve accuracy, such as conducting monthly counts in high-density areas, this approach isn\u2019t being implemented in the Dallas area.<\/p>\n

Auditors had several suggestions for Housing Forward, including developing ways to estimate the number of people missed during the annual count, particularly in areas volunteers don\u2019t reach, and doing periodic counts in the downtown Dallas area.<\/p>\n

The audit found several issues with the city\u2019s oversight of contractors\u2019 programs and services. The review found cases where some groups didn\u2019t provide documents to back up the performance data for their programs, other groups that didn\u2019t have the information they provided verified by the city, and other contractors who had missing documentation that was supposed to be provided to the city to validate their program performance and expenses. <\/p>\n

Dallas officials didn\u2019t provide any documents explaining why they fulfilled contracts in cases where required documentation was missing, according to the review.<\/p>\n

The city is in the process of hiring more monitoring staff, updating procedures and improving data collection through the Homeless Management Information System, according to the audit. A new data coordinator has been brought on to improve reporting, and city staff are working with Housing Forward to improve communication and contract oversight.<\/p>\n

The audit also found two city-funded initiatives with Housing Forward, a $3 million master leasing program<\/a> and $2.3 million contract for street outreach services for the R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing program, where about $54,000 \u2014 2% \u2014 of the money combined had been spent at the time the audit was completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCited reasons include Housing Forward\u2019s use of alternate funding for these services and delays in payments allowed by the contract due to lack of required performance information,\u201d the audit said. Since nearly no money has been spent on these contracts, auditors said the city can\u2019t effectively determine how these programs contribute to its strategy in addressing homelessness.<\/p>\n

The audit said the city planned to implement all of the recommendations officials agreed to by the end of June 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas\u2019 strategy to end homelessness needs clearer goals and more oversight to accurately measure its efforts, a city…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14840,14841,7265,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-27083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-city-hall","12":"tag-homelessness","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114772291367422661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}