Homeless Response System Online Learning Clinic 2018 – Part IV: Building Dallas’ Homeless Response System – 2015-2017 – All Roads Lead to Housing

The entire system is oriented towards housing as the solution for homelessness, and this approach permeates every component of the system. There is a sense of urgency in getting everyone, and first and foremost those who are high on the Housing Priority List, into housing, as soon as possible, with as few barriers as possible. In the meantime, individuals, who need it, are offered temporary shelter, with the constant ever-present expectation that they be moved into housing as soon as possible.

Dr. Iain De Jong

(Courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune)

Since 2015, MDHA has held regular policy discussions, trainings, lunch and learns, boot camps, and roundtables for case managers, program managers, agency leaders, and the public, to reorient every part of the Dallas homeless services ecosystem towards this thinking. Notably, in March 2017, MDHA asked pioneering world expert, Dr. Iain De Jong, of OrgCode, to conduct one of his international learning clinics on Being an Awesome Shelter, in Dallas. MDHA sponsored ten spots for Dallas shelters, to further facilitate a transformation in how Dallas shelters operate, as housing-oriented programs.
 
To further assist case managers in housing their clients, in 2015, in conjunction with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, MDHA founded the MDHA Flex Fund[i]. This fund gives case managers an important tool to pay for hundreds of minor but impactful expenses, every year, that can help individuals resolve their homelessness, quickly and permanently. 

 

 

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[i] http://www.mdhadallas.org/the-mdha-flex-fund/