Dallas has seen a drop in homelessness, thanks to a new strategy focused on moving people from encampments into long-term housing.
Yfat Yossifor, along with reporter Christopher Connelly, spent almost a year following the new process in a homeless encampment under an East Dallas overpass. They contacted with several people in the encampment to learn about their lives before and after the process, as well as the outreach workers who put in long hours to build trust and break down barriers.
Sarah Kahn, who leads Housing Forward, says that efforts to help the homeless used to focus mostly on crisis response for years — spending millions of dollars on the short-term needs only to see homelessness go up and up. Kahn says this doesn't work for folks who end up in encampments, most of whom have disabilities that add to their challenges.
“Whether that disabling condition is a result of homelessness or occurred before they become homeless, that is the population who has been homeless for a long period of time,” she says. “And they are not going to exit homelessness unless we bring housing assistance and wrap around care to that individual.”
Starting in 2021, this housing-first approach was supercharged with federal COVID relief funds. More recently, the federal government sent even more money because the strategy showed success, including a $22.8 million grant to address unsheltered homelessness, a $9.4 million grant to address youth homelessness, and additional technical support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
