Dallas Among 5 Cities Tapped for New Federal Initiative Aimed at Reducing Homelessness

Sidewalk encampment in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles on May 16, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The city of Dallas, Texas, is one of five U.S. cities, plus the state of California, to be part of a federal initiative to reduce homelessness, the White House announced on Thursday.

“My administration has taken a ‘kitchen-sink’ approach to address the challenges of homelessness,” Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson said in a statement. “We welcome this partnership with the federal government and will leverage it as another tool to encourage healthier and safer communities in Dallas.”

Domestic Policy Director Susan Rice and Veterans Affairs Director Denis McDonough on Thursday launched the “All INside” plan with a goal of reducing nationwide homelessness by 25 percent by 2025.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and its 19 federal member agencies will partner with state and local governments for up to two years to “strengthen and accelerate local efforts to get unsheltered people into homes in six places: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix Metro, Seattle, and the State of California,” the White House said in a news release.

Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold and Housing Forward Chairman Peter Brodsky were on-hand representing Dallas during the online launch event.

Arnold said the city has partnered with public and private organizations, taken steps to standardize the intake process, and focused on collecting and sharing data to make services available and more effective for the homeless population.

Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment. 

Brodsky said the city has emphasized gaining input from those who have experienced homeless “because I think unless you’ve walked a mile in someone’s shoes, you don’t really understand all the barriers and the complexities they face.”

“So, to that end, we’ve really stepped up our efforts to make sure that the voices of people with lived experience being unhoused are front and center,” he continued.

How the Plan Works

The plan was developed through an extensive process of information gathering from the member agencies, dozens of listening sessions with elected officials and advocates, and input from more than 500 who have experienced homelessness. Nearly 650 communities, tribes, and territories were included in the input-gathering process.

The six-pillar plan is focused on three foundations—equity, data and evidence, and collaboration—and three solutions—housing and supports, crisis response, and prevention, according to the USICH.

Each targeted community will have one embedded federal official working with local officials to help accelerate strategies that drive system-level changes at the local level.

The official will deploy dedicated teams across the government to identify federal funding opportunities and cultivate altruistic and private-sector partnerships for support and collaboration.

The Department of Health and Human Services will work with communities to leverage Medicaid and other federal programs which provide health insurance to low-income people, coverage for housing-related services, and behavioral health care.

The Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Department of Veteran Affairs will work to help individuals obtain government-issued identification and other necessary documents.

Other USICH members, including the Departments of Labor, Transportation, Energy, Justice, and Treasury, have also committed their support for the program.

“For the first time ever, more of the individuals experiencing homelessness are living and sleeping in tents, transit stations, and other unsheltered locations than in shelters and transitional housing,” the White House said.

HUD Grants and Vouchers

In April, HUD released a “first-of-its-kind” grant package worth $486 million and 3,300 housing vouchers to assist 62 communities in addressing homelessness.

“Housing with supportive services is what solves homelessness, but people in unsheltered settings and in rural areas have not had access to those solutions,” HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a press release. “The combination of these grants and vouchers will help and give the communities tools they need to help people who are living on the streets, in encampments, under bridges, or in rural areas obtain permanent housing.”

Dallas received $22 million in grants, while Chicago and Los Angeles received $60 million each, and $36 million went to other communities across the state of California.

Homelessness Numbers

This year, 4,244 individuals have experienced homelessness at least once in Dallas and neighboring Collin Counties, according to Housing Forward, an organization serving both counties in an effort to end homelessness.

Across the counties, homelessness overall is down 4 percent this year over 2022, and chronic homelessness is down 32 percent over the same period, the data shows.

However, veteran homelessness has jumped 22 percent; youth homelessness has increased by 18 percent, and family homelessness is up by 15 percent over 2022.

In Los Angeles, an estimated 58,000 people are homeless each night, according to Union Rescue Mission. Of those, about 8 percent are veterans, and 22 percent are youth.

In the United States, an estimated 1.25 million people experienced sheltered homelessness at some point in 2020, according to HUD data (pdf).

The data also showed almost 85,000 veterans, or one in every 160 veterans, were housed in a homeless shelter between Oct. 1, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2020. Seventy-one percent of sheltered veterans reported a disability, and 22 percent experienced chronic homelessness.

The Department of Education data shows 1.28 million students, or about 2.5 percent of all U.S. students, enrolled in K-12 schools experienced some form of homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year (pdf). The data does not include parents or siblings not enrolled in school.