4 January 12–18, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents of care,” the description for a group of or- ganizations that make up the homeless re- sponse system for Dallas and Collin counties. Housing Forward, formerly called Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, is the lead organization for the response sys- tem, which includes agencies that shelter the homeless and provide services such as counseling and job training to try to get them back on their feet. It’s all paid for through private donations, cities, counties and the federal government. Some of that money goes toward rapid rehousing. The term rapid rehousing gets tossed around frequently but it generally refers to quickly providing short- to long-term rental assistance and other services for homeless families and individuals. There are federal, state and local rapid rehousing programs. The city rolled out a new program in 2021, the Dal- las R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative. Thomas, Sowell and Hollowell said they’ve been waiting since September when they applied for housing assistance and learned a year might pass before they get homes. “There’s no help, really, other than a little goody bag once every other week coming from CitySquare,” Hollowell said. CitySquare is a local nonprofit that offers job training, health care, food and housing for the homeless. “I mean, they try to come out here and keep faith, but there’s a whole bunch of us out here that get no help.” Hollowell isn’t sure what the long wait is about. “They haven’t told us anything other than we’re on the list,” Hollowell said. Applications for the Dallas R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative opened in Octo- ber 2021 with a goal of moving 2,700 home- less people into permanent housing within two years through the use of housing vouch- ers distributed by partnering organizations and local governments. More than 700 vouchers would go toward providing fami- lies, domestic violence victims and people with chronic health issues a year’s worth of subsidized rent. The rest would go to people considered chronically homeless. To date, more than 1,400 people have been housed through the program. Accord- ing to KERA, nine homeless encampments have been shut down through the program, and their residents have since been housed. Nearly 700 others are enrolled in the pro- gram, waiting for housing that isn’t there be- cause too few apartment complexes are participating in the program. That’s why a campaign was launched to get more land- lords on board. The campaign includes cash incentives for landlords willing to house people in the program. It’s a $72 million initiative paid for pri- marily by federal COVID-19 relief funds that’s gotten praise from the likes of Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. “This problem has been growing for many years, and it is clear that we have to act now to address the myriad causes of home- lessness and implement short-term and long-term solutions that provide people with stability and pathways to better lives,” Johnson told The Dallas Morning News when the program began. But this and other programs may not be as quick as the name suggests. Joli Robin- son, the CEO of Housing Forward, said it’s better to think of rapid rehousing in the con- text of the whole homeless response system. People are supposed to get connected to re- sources that best suit their circumstances. They can link up to these resources through access points — a shelter, for example. From there, individuals get assessed for their needs to see what kind of assistance may work best for them. One of those re- sources is rapid rehousing, but it’s not right for everyone. Maybe an emergency housing voucher is a better resource. Homeless mili- tary veterans might be better served by a veterans assistance program. Both emergency housing vouchers and rapid rehousing subsidies are offered for apartment complexes throughout the city, Robinson said. But some of those eligible for the help may need to live in a certain part of town to make it to work every day. Maybe they have mobility issues and need to be on the first floor instead of the third. These are some factors taken into account when find- ing a unit with an emergency voucher or through the R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative, which also provides help furnish- ing some clients’ new homes. Every situation is different, so the pro- cess can take between 80 and 90 days, which is about how long Thomas, Sowell and Hol- lowell have been waiting. Throughout someone’s time in the R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative, their case worker is supposed to help them become self-sufficient. “The end goal is self- sustainability, but it looks different for every- one,” Robinson said. To one individual, it may look like moving in with friends or family. For another, it may look like finding a steady job. Mismatching clients with services can have bad consequences. Local homeless advocate Lisa Marshall has seen it herself. She’s been working with a woman who was enrolled in a different rapid rehousing pro- gram operated by Dallas’ Office of Home- less Solutions and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel- opment’s Emergency Solutions Grant Pro- gram. This grant money can go to nonprofit organizations and local governments to provide services for the homeless. Some of that money went into a Dallas rapid re- housing program that offered subsidized rent for up to a year. The idea was that people in this program would either pick up the rent payments in- crementally or fully at the end of the pro- gram. But the woman Marshall was working with ended up needing more permanent as- sistance than the program offered because mental health issues and drug addiction have prevented her from getting and holding onto a job. That didn’t change the fact that, per the program, she’d need to start picking up the rent payments in September. She couldn’t. Now, she’s about $3,000 behind on rent and is being taken to eviction court. As it turned out for Thomas, Sowell and Hollowell, the R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehous- ing Initiative was the right resource for only one of them, according to Housing Forward. For privacy reasons, the organization said it couldn’t identify who had been chosen for rapid rehousing. The other two need more permanent supportive housing, something the program doesn’t provide. Since becoming homeless, the three say they’ve been on the run from the city and its homeless encampment sweeps. Thomas has been on the streets the longest. “I’ve been on and off the streets since 2007,” Thomas said. “Due to a divorce for the most part, I’ve been in and out of shelters.” He served about a year in jail for theft and said he’s been on the straight and narrow since his release in 2016, but his criminal re- cord has made landing a job and getting back on his feet tough. “I don’t have a job, so I donate plasma to try to help make ends meet,” Thomas said. “I’ve twice panhandled to help out, but that’s the extent of it. I don’t have any other income. I’ve tried to get in on housing to ac- tually get a place to stay, and it’s been a te- dious process.” His criminal record has dogged him as he tries to find work. “I haven’t been to jail in six years, but yet it’s still hard to be able to find somebody who’s willing to give me a chance. And that’s all I need,” Thomas said. “That’s all I want, is for somebody to give me a chance to get back into working, and I could probably get myself out of this situation. But, it’s not working out the way I would hope for it to be. “All these jobs that are available, you see all these signs that are saying hiring, but you go in there and once they do a background check or whatever, they tell me they can’t employ me. I’ve even been honest with them. … Nobody is willing to help me out. That’s really my biggest obstacle.” Dallas’ frequent sweeps of homeless en- campments haven’t made his search any easier. He was living in an encampment last year that was targeted by the city. He wasn’t there when the city came to remove the camp, so he lost all of his identification. “The Office of Homeless Solutions, they come out here and we’re already out here with everything that we have,” Thomas said. “And they come out here and wipe our camps out, bring bulldozers, and all that stuff — just take everything. Then we have to turn around and reacquire everything. Unfair Park from p3 Jacob Vaughn Justin Thomas in a homeless encampment near Dallas: He lives under the constant threat of having his tent and possessions destroyed during a city raid. >> p6
