During the 2019 State of the Homeless Address[i], MDHA’s then new President and CEO, Carl Falconer, highlighted our community’s second 9% rise in homelessness. He called for all stakeholders, to rally toward one single vision for ending homelessness, through his D-ONE plan[ii]. Guided by this plan, Dallas’s homeless response system made significant progress. Here are just a few highlights of its impact and ongoing efforts:
- Ensure D-ONE Plan Buy-In and Task Assignment – Working with a special committee of partners in local governments, non-profits, and funders, Falconer has received buy-in not only for the plan itself but has received commitments from necessary entities to take on individual plan tasks.
- Drive All Decisions with Data – In 2019, through a careful HUD-guided and community-driven RFP (request for proposals) process, MDHA transitioned to a new superior HMIS, Eccovia Solutions/ClientTrack. This new system will help MDHA gain 100% participation in HMIS, reduce provider time entering data, create and share user-friendly reports with the community and enhance continuity of care. It also lays the foundation for the connecting the homeless response system with multiple data systems through a data warehouse.
- Increase Rapid Rehousing – In 2019, our system increased rapid rehousing units by 18%. MDHA continues to work on securing new sources of funding, reallocating existing funding, and providing extensive and ongoing training and coaching to build staff capacity. Currently, MDHA is working with the City of Dallas to rapidly rehouse 200 guests from the COVID-19 overflow shelter.
- Establish and Implement a Move-On Program – In 2019, MDHA partnered with local public housing authorities to apply for and receive move-on vouchers, designed to help those in permanent supportive housing, who no longer need intense support, but cannot afford market-based rent, to move on, freeing up permanent supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness. MDHA is in the process of implementing this program.[iii]
- Improve Street Outreach – In 2019, our system increased exits to permanent housing destinations from street outreach by 223%. MDHA continues to work on upgrading, systematizing, and ensuring complete street outreach coverage, within the City of Dallas.
- Partner with Those with Lived Experience – In 2019, the MDHA CoC Youth Committee, conducted two of the most extensive youth outreach surveys to date, among and with the help of homeless youth. Recognizing that[iv], “the most effective solutions to understanding and addressing youth homelessness are developed in partnership with youth with lived experience,” MDHA stood up the new Dallas-Area Youth for a Brighter Tomorrow (DAYBT). Currently, MDHA is also adding a person with lived experience to each of its Continuum of Care Committees, to form a Homeless Consumer Council.[v]
- Enhance Diversion – In 2019, Family Gateway, specifically, successfully diverted about 47% of homeless families to solutions that helped them end their homelessness, without having to enter the shelter system.
- Systematize Training and Technical Assistance – MDHA trains providers, monthly, to ensure the use of leading evidence-based practices. It is working to establish minimum training standards for providers to ensure skill development and competency and long-term program sustainability.
- Deploy Frequent Users Systems Engagement (FUSE) – Through grants from United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the Texas Instruments Foundation, system partners will place caseworkers in key spots to identify heavy users of community resources, assess, prioritize and place them on the MDHA Housing Priority List (HPL) and fast-track them into housing.[vi]
- End Veteran Homelessness – In 2019, MDHA led its first Veterans Housing Challenge, with the goal of housing 100 veterans in 100 days. The goal was exceeded with 140 ending their homelessness. Currently, MDHA is leading its second such challenge, launched with the support and in the presence of the Mayor and the entire Dallas City Council.[vii] Through the challenges and lessons learned from them, MDHA hopes that, in 2020, Dallas will join the 78 communities and 3 states that have ended veteran homelessness.[viii]
- Educate and Build Community Support – Through the Hard Conversation series, presentations in the community, engaging the press[ix], blogging, social media and e-newsletters, MDHA continues to educate the community on how we can, are already, and should continue to end homelessness.[x]
- Mobilize the Faith Community – In 2019-2020, MDHA built on its already established relationship with Faith Forward Dallas (FFD) to rally the faith community. FFD helped with the first Veterans Housing Challenge and fought for inclement weather shelter. One congregation is running a pilot through which they are ending the homelessness of one family at a time, and soon they will present to FFD and urge other congregations to follow their lead.[xii] Currently, FFD is actively planning to mobilize clergy in each of the fourteen Dallas City Council districts. The goal is to approach each city council member and call on them to commit to specific numbers of housing units, coupled with applicable services, per the needs of the homeless response system. MDHA will also help clergy to mobilize their congregations to follow their lead and do the same.
- Establish a Funders Collaborative to End Homelessness – In 2019, MDHA laid the foundation to establish a robust funders collaborative to help end homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties. In 2020, MDHA is working to make such a powerful mechanism a reality.
During the 2020 State of the Homeless Address, livestreamed on YouTube, without an audience, in the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic, the no longer new MDHA President and CEO, Carl Falconer, shared the results of the 2020 annual Homeless Count:
- Homelessness decreased 1.4% from 4538 to 4,471
- Emergency sheltered homelessness decreased 16.2% from 2313 to 1938
- Unsheltered homelessness increased 11.5% from 1,452 to 1,619
- Veteran homelessness decreased 14.6% from 431 to 368
- Chronic homelessness increased 7% from 470 to 503
- Family homelessness decreased 10.4% from 1025 to 918
- Child homelessness decreased 9.5% from 732 to 662
- The percentage of persons of color in unsheltered homelessness increased from 54% to 61%
The above decrease in overall homelessness (swinging 10.4% away from its trend line), coupled with the decreases in veteran, family and child homelessness make one thing, first and foremost, clear: The Dallas homeless response system has begun to turn the tide in the fight to end homelessness. However, we are not, as they say, “out of the woods.” We must seize this momentum and redouble our efforts.
[i] https://mdhadallas.org/blog/metro-dallas-homeless-alliance-president-and-ceo-delivers-annual-state-of-the-homeless-address/
[ii] https://housingforwardntx.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/D-ONE-Plan-FINAL.pdf
[iii] https://housingforwardntx.org/move-on-program/
[iv] https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/YHDP-Fact-Sheet.pdf, https://housingforwardntx.org/blog/the-need-for-a-homeless-youth-action-board-in-dallas/
[v] https://housingforwardntx.org/coc-board-assembly-and-committees/
[vi] https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/new-initiative-will-provide-housing-for-the-most-frequent-users-of-emergency-rooms-and-jail-11858111
[vii] https://housingforwardntx.org/blog/mdha-second-veterans-housing-challenge-no-buddy-left-behind/
[viii] https://www.usich.gov/communities-that-have-ended-homelessness
[ix] https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/02/why-homelessness-going-down-houston-dallas/
[x] https://housingforwardntx.org/educational-video-and-audio/
