Despite the declaration, Mayor Eric Johnson says this doesn’t mean there won’t be any homeless veterans around the city.
DALLAS — Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and City Council members announced Wednesday the city has received a federal declaration saying it has effectively ended veteran homelessness.
The announcement included federal representatives and nonprofit leaders who celebrated the recognition — awarded to the city by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — with a press conference outside the city council chamber at Dallas City Hall.
However, the mayor and others acknowledged that this distinction does not mean that the issue of veteran’s homelessness has been fully solved in the city.
“[It] doesn’t mean that we’re not going to see another veteran experiencing homelessness in our city or in our county again,” Johnson explained. “It does not mean that.”
Later at the press conference, the mayor explained what it does mean: “It means that we now have the systems, the data and the coordination in Dallas and Collin Counties to where any veteran who does fall into homelessness can and will quickly obtain a permanent home within 90 days.”
According to the USICH, the criteria for achieving the goal of ending veteran homelessness consists of five major community characteristics:
- The community has identified all veterans experiencing homelessness.
- The community provides shelter immediately to any veteran experiencing unsheltered homelessness who wants it.
- The community provides service-intensive transitional housing only in limited instances.
- The community has capacity to assist veterans to swiftly move into permanent housing.
- The community has resources, plans, partnerships and system capacity in place should any veteran become homeless or be at risk of homelessness in the future.
But despite the city accomplishing that goal, some veterans remain on the streets — including just across the street from City Hall.
“There’s a whole bunch of us,” said former Army Staff Sergeant Kim Day, who lingered outside of Dallas’ J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, just across Young Street from City Hall Plaza, shortly before the press conference started.
Day said she was a fourth-generation veteran who drove heavy-wheel trucks in her 10 years of military service, and that she had been living for seven years on the streets of Dallas.
She expressed frustration with the services she’s received from the city — and its declaration that it had effectively ended veterans homelessness.
“My mother would call it window dressers,” Day said. “They want you to make it look like they’re doing something, but they’re really not.”
Even so, others think there is merit to Wednesday’s declaration.
It serves as a type of inspiration for the people who work in the field, said Domingo Rodriguez, who works with Metrocare as a Peer Service Coordinator for the Military Veteran Peer Network.
Rodriguez explained that, though this declaration doesn’t mean the city has fully ended veteran homelessness, the designation provides social workers and others a reason to celebrate the successes of their efforts.
“The reason we’re saying this is that now everything we’ve been talking about is in place,” he said. “We’ve tested it and it works. There’s still homeless out there, but we know we can start to handle that a little better.”
That’s progress the city acknowledges it needs to continue.
“I always want to celebrate our victories,” said City Councilman Jesse Moreno, who chairs the Housing & Homeless Solutions Committee. “But I also want to make sure we don’t lose sight of additional programs.”
Moreno said the conversation on how best to help the unhoused in Dallas will continue, including with a committee meeting scheduled for Friday.
“For me, the work is far from over,” Moreno said.
Also on WFAA.com: