Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance President and CEO Delivers Annual State of the Homeless Address

Dallas, Texas – On Wednesday, March 21, 2018, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) held its fourth annual State of the Homeless Address, at Goodwill Industries of Dallas. The Address was delivered by MDHA President and CEO, Cindy J. Crain. It covered the results of January’s annual homeless count, as well as the progress of Dallas’ homeless response system, in making homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.

Ms. Crain’s PowerPoint Presentation may be downloaded from the MDHA website. The full address, including the question and answer period that followed it, will be posted to MDHA’s YouTube channel in the next few days. A bullet point summary of the address follows:

• Homeless Count Results:

-          Overall homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties, clocking in at 4,140 individuals, rose by 9%, when compared to 2017.

-          Unsheltered homelessness, clocking in at 1,341 individuals, rose by 23% during the same time period.

-          The number of homeless veterans dropped from 356 individuals or 9.5% of the homeless population to 331 individuals or 8% of the homeless population.

-          The number of chronically homeless individuals (those homeless for a year or more, with a documented disability) continued to drop, for a second year now, clocking in at 424 individuals, or 21% fewer than in 2017.

-          The rise in the overall numbers and specifically the unsheltered numbers is in line with national trends across urban centers in the United States. It is attributable to the lack of affordable housing.

• MDHA’s Housing Priority List, which lies at the core of the homeless response system, is making a huge difference in Dallas. In an effective homeless response system, no placements are made in any program without objectively assessing each person, prioritizing them for service, based on the level of their vulnerability and specific needs, and placing each person on a unified Housing Priority List. Placements in housing are made only from that list, based on priority status and specific needs. As of mid-March 2018, there are about 790 individuals on the Housing Priority list, ready to be housed. 209 of these individuals are chronically homeless, which means that about half of the chronically homeless population is ready to be housed. Over the course of the last 12 months, 246 individuals have been housed from the Housing Priority List.

• MDHA is now able to analyze a wealth of data regarding health outcomes of individuals experiencing homelessness, through its new Homeless Management Information System, which is part of Pieces Iris. As Politico Magazine wrote in December 2017, Pieces Iris is already, “having a powerful impact on overwhelmed homeless organizations in Dallas…” The data collected through Iris is already making it easier to make not just the moral case, but the business case for ending individuals’ homelessness quickly and permanently. 

• Whatever measure we look at, we see a marked overrepresentation of African Americans in the homeless population. The homeless count showed that 60% of the unsheltered homeless are African Americans, and analysis of data from the Homeless Management Information System in the years 2011-2016, showed an even higher number - 66.7%. Since late 2016, with the support of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Unite Dallas Relief Fund, MDHA has been partnering with five other cities, towards establishing more racial equity in homeless services, through SPARC (Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities), a new research and action program from the Center for Social Innovation (C4).

• MDHA is working with its partners, on a number of simultaneous projects, from a 90-day Emergency Shelter Housing Challenge through a separate State of Homeless Youth event in April to creating a detailed “My Housing Plan” framework for as many individuals as possible, to help them make progress in ending their homelessness, and eventually become housed.

• Next week, March 26-28, 2018 MDHA is convening a Homeless Response System Leadership and Strategic Planning Retreat, with about 65 local leaders and 10 national experts in the homelessness arena. The retreat will be facilitated by pioneering world expert, Dr. Iain De Jong, and is designed to usher in a more strategic community response to homelessness. Participating leaders will commit to two days of intense action-oriented interactive hard work, focusing on the critical nature of collective impact, and how an effective system of care can bring about an end to homelessness in our community. The ultimate goal will be to produce a Homeless Response System Consolidated Strategic Plan, through which all stakeholders can make a real impact in the fight against homelessness.

Ms. Crain ended her address, by emphasizing that the primary driver of homelessness is still extreme poverty, i.e. the lack of sufficient household income to meet the cost of housing. Demand for safe, affordable and accessible housing continues to dramatically outpace supply. Metropolitan Dallas and urban centers in America, in general, must address this problem by building more safe, affordable, accessible housing, as well as build up household incomes. That is the only way to end the modern homelessness crisis, which has afflicted the United States for more than four decades.