Yesterday, August 26, 2019, we shared some great news: Working with the Dallas housing authority, DHA, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other homeless response system partners, we were able to end the homelessness of 140 Dallas and Collin County homeless veterans, in just 100 days.
The VA’s official Veterans Challenge Thermometer
As a nice additional dividend, we are saving the community money, in the process, because study after study shows that keeping folks on the street or in shelters ends up costing the community more money than it does to house them.
How did we do it?
DHA gave them housing vouchers. DHA and the VA helped them find and rent apartments with those housing vouchers. The VA will now provide case management services to ensure that they do not become homeless again. That’s it.
Not only that; luckily, there is nothing fundamentally different about the homelessness of a veteran, as opposed to the homelessness of a non-veteran. That means that we could apply the same type of simple solution to non-veteran homelessness and end their homelessness too.
All we need to do, as a community, is give the non-veterans the means to rent apartments, help them find and rent apartments, and (if needed) provide them case management services, to ensure that they do not become homeless again. That’s it.
So, why haven’t we done this yet? Well, once again, the answer is a simple one. We have not decided to do it. That’s it.
As our President and CEO, Carl Falconer, said yesterday, “We know that with enough resources and collaboration we can end homelessness. We have shown it is working for our veterans. The community can and should decide to make the same commitment for every homeless person.”
Right now, Dallas City Council Members, with the help of the City Manager and his staff, are poring over city budget proposals and proposed amendments, and making tough decisions about how to allocate scarce funding to the many important issues our community must address. We don’t envy them.
We do, however, hope they will heed the inherent message in the success of our Veterans Challenge. Dallas is in a homelessness crisis, but Dallas can end that crisis. We just need to decide that we will. Allocate the necessary funding to house every homeless person. We and our partners will do the rest. That’s it.
