Dallas County, Cities Of Dallas And Mesquite Announce $70M Joint Effort To Reduce Homelessness
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The cities of Dallas and Mesquite, Dallas County, and several organizations have announced a $70 million joint effort to reduce homelessness in the area.
Known as Dallas Real Time Rapid Rehousing (DRTRR), the initiative will look to rehouse over 2,600 people experiencing homelessness: 100 domestic violence survivors, 100 families and over 2,400 homeless people.
According to area leaders, the money would come from both cities, Dallas County, the DHA Housing Solutions of North Texas and the nonprofit Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. The Homeless Collaborative and Dallas and Collin counties' Continuum of Care would also provide services to the homeless.
The goal of the program is to provide permanent housing and services for domestic violence survivors and families in need through 655 vouchers from the American Recovery Plan Act.
For the other 2,000 homeless people, the program would provide housing with rent paid for 12 months, and during that 12 months, services would be provided to help the affected person "stabilize their lives, address health issues, and find employment."
"Too many people, particularly African Americans, experience homelessness in our city and in our region," said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. "This problem has been growing for many years, and it is clear that we have to act now to address the myriad causes of homelessness and implement short-term and long-term solutions that provide people with stability and pathways to better lives. With the help of these federal resources and a commitment from other cities, Dallas County, and our homelessness services providers such as MDHA, we have an incredible opportunity to make a significant impact on this critical issue."
"It is thrilling to see so many community stakeholders – cities, the County, public agencies, non-profits, and the philanthropic community – uniting to create a bigger impact than any of us could have on our own," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "We are also excited that DRTRR would offer valuable new tools to equitably and humanely resolve encampments by offering people immediate housing as an alternative to unsheltered homelessness. Unsheltered homelessness threatens the health and safety of all in our community, and many experiencing homelessness end up in the Parkland Health & Hospital System emergency room or Dallas County Jail. This historic partnership would increase the quality of trauma-informed care from partner agencies, save taxpayer dollars spent triaging people in crisis, and make Dallas County stronger and a better place to live."