Early Wednesday morning, November 10, 2021, on the eve of Veterans Day, local and national leaders provided an update on progress in combatting homelessness among veterans in Dallas and Collin counties.
Attendees heard from local leaders, Dallas City Council Member (District 3) Casey Thomas, Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee; Joli Angel Robinson, President and CEO, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance; Peter Brodsky, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Board Chair; and Ashley Brundage, Homeless Collaborative of Dallas and Collin Counties Board Chair.
Federal officials on hand to extol Dallas and Collin Counties’ progress were Tamara Wright, Regional Coordinator, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH); John Kuhn, National Director, Supportive Services for Veteran Families, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); and Leslie Ann Bradley, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 6, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Underlining both these local and national leaders’ words was one idea. No one organization can end homelessness alone. A collective impact approach, embodied locally in the Homeless Collaborative is a must. And critical to the success of such an approach is a strong backbone organization, like MDHA, with subject matter expertise, “the skills and resources to assemble and coordinate the specific elements necessary,” and the ability to handle “the myriad logistical and administrative details needed,” to reach shared goals.
Measures of Progress:
- Of the 300 veterans identified as experiencing homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties, 60% are in the process of leasing up and moving into permanent housing.
- Since the first veterans housing challenge in 2019, MDHA and its Homeless Collaborative partners have reduced veteran homelessness by 18%. (For comparison, veteran homelessness in the United States is estimated to have gone up by about 8%.)
- Housing rates are proportional to the demographics of the veterans experiencing homelessness in our community. 58% of the veterans identified as experiencing homelessness are Black and Black veteran households make up 60% of our housing placements in an average month.
How This Was Accomplished:
- MDHA and the Homeless Collaborative leveraged the collective impact of key public and private partners, USICH, VA, local governments, especially the City of Dallas, non-profit providers, and the philanthropic sector.
- MDHA and the Homeless Collaborative expanded permanent housing options by aligning public and private resources and collaborating with local landlords.
- MDHA and the Homeless Collaborative streamlined pathways out of homelessness, by identifying every veteran who becomes homeless and quickly connecting them to housing and supportive services to promote long term housing stability.
- This work is part and parcel of the community-wide Dallas R.E.A.L-Time Rapid Rehousing effort, and it furthers the goal of housing over 2,700 individuals by the end of 2023. MDHA is thankful to our philanthropic partners funding that effort, led by Bank of America, Margot Perot and the Perot Family, and W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at Communities Foundation of Texas and the Collaborative on Homelessness, a group of Dallas funders led by the Meadows Foundation, also a leading contributor.
Call to Action:
- MDHA and the Homeless Collaborative call on all of our community partners to build on this great progress. We all must work together to ensure every veteran has a home.
Housing Fair:
The update was but a prelude to the main event, a veterans housing fair, during which MDHA brought together service providers, including the American GI Forum, Endeavors, and the VA, and property managers. Over just a few hours more than a dozen veterans were matched on the spot with and will soon move into permanent housing. We will be sharing the incredible story of just one of these veterans on this blog in the next few days, so stay tuned!
