Dallas aims to combat homelessness through a potential tax, with voters deciding in November. The Street to Home initiative has reduced downtown encampments by 87%.<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2014 The streets in downtown Dallas have transformed over the last several years. \u00a0In 2024, the city of Dallas invested $30 million to close homeless encampments in public areas and move residents into permanent housing through The Street to Home initiative.<\/p>\n
The Street to Home Initiative is a Dallas-based collaborative program led by Housing Forward. The organization partners with other nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, and mental health and substance abuse agencies to provide permanent housing solutions and services to keep people off the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have permanently resolved all encampments downtown,\u201d Sarah Khan, president and CEO of Housing Forward told WFAA regarding Phase I of the initiative. \u00a0\u201cOur friends at DDI are doing daily streets counts and those have decreased by 87 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Phase II, Khan said Housing Forward and its partners want to continue to expand upon their work and success in downtown Dallas by expanding to help residents in other neighborhoods throughout the county. \u00a0But it\u2019s an uphill battle because they need more funding. That\u2019s why Housing Forward is asking Dallas County Commissioners to approve their proposal of letting voters decide on a homeless tax this November.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the average property owner, that would be a $5 a month investment in preventing people from sleeping outside,\u201d says Khan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since 2021, Housing Forward and its partners have helped over 23,000 people move from living on the streets. However, the need is growing as living costs increase.<\/p>\n
But the need is growing as living costs increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are folks that I know who are struggling to pay [the] nearly $5 a gallon for gas,\u201d Dr. David Woody III, president and CEO of the homeless recovery provider service, The Bridge. \u201cIf that gets thrown out of whack, that could be the one thing that trips many people into homelessness right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, the city of Dallas and Dallas County have contributed a total of $20 million for Phase II of the Street to Home initiative. Private donors have contributed $4 million. These donations and grants not renewable. According to Khan, a tax would raise $100 million a year in what she called \u201csustained funding\u201d to continue these services.<\/p>\n
During her organization\u2019s \u201c2026 State of Homelessness Address\u201d Thursday, County Judge Clay Jenkins acknowledged Housing Forward\u2019s proposal while speaking on a panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of questions \u2026 there\u2019s a lot of things that have to be looked at with that,\u201d he told the audience of organizations and concerned residents.<\/p>\n
On the panel, Jenkins said Dallas County Commissioners have until August to approve the proposal for voters to decide in November. Khan said the proposal would be the best investment because county residents are already footing the bill in other ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be paying this through $500 million plus dollars as we manage this crisis in our emergency rooms or our jails,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas aims to combat homelessness through a potential tax, with voters deciding in November. The Street to Home…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":796816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-796815","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-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116575367870503299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796815","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=796815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}