The City of Dallas allocated $2.5 million last year to a multi-departmental Homeless Action Response Team to remove transient encampments and connect the homeless with shelter and services. But District 12 Dallas City Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn indicated Tuesday there’s a long way to go before the problem is resolved, at least in her district.
It’s been said by some public officials that the solution to homelessness is housing,
Director of the Office of Homeless Solutions Christine Crossley told council members Tuesday that the Homeless Action Response Team (HART) came online in December and since then has visited 110 encampments, cleaned 94 locations, closed 43 service requests, and engaged 210 individuals.
“Our system is still getting to the point where we can automatically house someone as soon as we engage with them,” Crossley said. “For me, what success will look like. Our entire homelessness system is shifting more toward housing-readiness street outreach.”
Code Compliance Assistant Director Jeremy Reed, City Marshals Chief David Pughes, Dallas Animal Services Assistant Director Paul Ramon, and Director of Integrated Public Safety Kevin Oden also presented during Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee.
Solving Perpetual Encampments
Mendelsohn pointed out that not everyone wants housing and some can’t pass a background check for an apartment because they’ve been recently incarcerated for a violent felony.
Additionally, she said District 12 residents are frustrated because they don’t get a prompt response when making a service request, or the case is immediately closed out and the encampments persist.
Some of the problem areas in District 12 include a large piece of undeveloped land referred to as Rosemeade Park, an area behind Fire Station 10, land under the bridge at Frankford Road, and an area on Preston Road north of Arapaho Road. The sites have become “perpetual encampments,” Mendelsohn said.
“I’m wondering, how are we prioritizing things?” she asked. “We have a crisis and I’m wondering how we can leave it so unresolved for so long.”
Every place has to have a purpose, Pughes explained.
“What I would commit to is to take a look at that land and look at the environment around it to see if there are specific interventions we can come up with to better repurpose that spot where there are no additional risks being taken,” he said.
Mendelsohn said she believes in a compassionate approach, but more enforcement needs to take place. She asked whether warrants are checked when HART members engage with the homeless. A city official said they run warrants and make arrests when they encounter someone who is verbally or physically abusive.
“Our greatest support is given to the marshals and Dallas Police Department in doing behavioral health assessments of individuals that may or may not be a threat to themselves or others and determining if an emergency detention is needed or if other types of care would be best,” Oden said.
Mendelsohn said she was particularly concerned about the area referred to as Rosemeade Park, where violent acts occur frequently and fires are set. An explosion occurred there last week, she said.
“This is insane,” Mendelsohn said. “We’re just not doing the enforcement that’s necessary. Maybe we need another HART Team. We’re not seeing it in District 12 and we’re extremely frustrated.”
Housing the Homeless in Dallas
The HART works with mental health facilities like The Living Room to provide shelter for the formerly incarcerated, Crossley said. Several Dallas apartment complexes will rent to convicted felons who have been engaged with the city’s Office of Homeless Solutions programs, she said.
“That’s called low-barrier housing, and it’s a best practice for the federal government,” she said. “We do want to make sure there are always housing options available for people, depending on the background checks and what’s been done years in the past. For people who have been successfully working through our programs or can work through the programs, and something is years behind them, we can usually find landlords … and look at it through a more humanistic capacity. There are a lot of landlords we work with that are happy to do that.”
Deputy City Manager Kim Tolbert said administrators understand where there might be gaps “when it comes to certain members of our homeless population.”
“Through the work that we’re doing, when we encounter those individuals by connecting with them and getting them in the system where we can begin to work with them, I think that’s where our focus is right now. It’s better for us to know what those issues are and be able to help triage them and get them on the path to housing.”
Next Steps
In response to a question from District 9 Councilwoman Paula Blackmon, Crossley said the office currently only tracks numbers of those engaged, rather than those housed, but ultimately they will present “a more dynamic map with more equitable results.”
District 2 Councilman Jesse Moreno, vice chair of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee, said he’s frustrated by the lack of communication between departments and had hoped the Park and Recreation Department would be represented Tuesday.
The HART is using a Data-Informed Community Engagement model to solicit feedback from the community on “what makes high-risk areas attractive for illegal behaviors and what needs to be done to reduce opportunities for crime in those areas.”
