4 February 19 - 25, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents But in recent years, city officials have stressed the need for a more compassionate and comprehensive approach to tackling homelessness. That has led the city to spend millions of dollars each year on a “Housing Forward” strategy that priori- tizes access to housing over benchmarks like sobriety or employment when aiding a chronically homeless individual. Under this program, Dallas has cele- brated the “effective end” of downtown and veteran homelessness, meaning that if a person is identified as living in the downtown sector or as an unhoused vet- eran, they will be matched to services within a short window of time. During the Feb. 9 meeting of the City Council’s Hous- ing and Homelessness Solutions Commit- tee, council members recognized the progress made downtown, and city lead- ers suggested it may be time to expand that model citywide. “We’ve started a weekly call with my team, with law enforcement, with Housing Forward and with others where we’re talk- ing about the places that are generating the most 911 calls and the most 311 calls,” said Kevin Oden, Dallas’ director of emergency management and crisis response. “[We’re asking] what resources do we have so that we can build out a customized [plan] similar to what we did downtown.” According to Oden, 311 calls for encamp- ments rose by 45% over the last few years, but have fallen considerably in recent months as the city narrows its focus on en- campment hotspots, which are areas where the city has spent “many hundreds of thou- sands” or “millions of dollars” attempting to clean up time and time again. Oden said his department identified 180 encampments in January of this year and is working to im- prove response times to 311 calls reporting the tents, which often take between seven and 21 days to resolve. But some council members suggested that the numbers Oden shared represent only part of the picture in Dallas’ homeless- ness crisis. “We need to see the raw numbers,” said Council member Lorie Blair. “When you’re saying you’re having service requests de- cline, is the decline because you have no more unhoused residents that you’re in communication with, or is it because no more requests are being opened?” Others on the council were especially perturbed by headlines describing dozens of Dallas’ homeless being put in zip tie hand- cuffs by local police officers ahead of ex- treme winter weather. According to the Dallas Morning News, the crackdown was intended to encourage nearly 50 individuals living outside to go to a shelter during the below-freezing temperatures, but several in- dividuals told the News that, during the sweep, their belongings, such as tents, were “destroyed.” At least one woman said that by the time she was released by police to a shelter, it was full, and she returned outside. “It just seems like there needed to be a step before the zip ties came out,” said Council member Gay Donnell Willis at the meeting. A joint statement from the city of Dallas and Housing Forward stated that “coordina- tion gaps” led to the encampment sweep. Oden told the committee that, in an ideal sit- uation, staff members spend four to six weeks helping to find shelter or alternative placement for homeless individuals before a sweep. “When it comes to cleanup day, the in- tended outcome is there’s no one there,” he said. Council member Cara Mendelsohn was also skeptical about the timing of the sweep, which Dallas police told the News had been planned six weeks prior. The evening of the sweep, hundreds of volunteers took to Dallas’ streets for the an- nual point-in-time count, a census tally that gives the city its best approximation of how many people are living outdoors. For several years in a row, Dallas has recorded decreas- ing numbers of homeless people. Men- delsohn questioned whether the encampment sweep was timed to continue that decrease. “When I drove Coit and LBJ the day of the point-in-time count, it was remarkable. For the first time in years, there was nobody there,” said Mendelsohn, who chairs the committee. “Two days later, back to the way it has been. This morning, back to the way it has been. But for the point-in-time count, nobody was there. I think we already know we’re going to see some very unusual results that are not reflective of what’s actually hap- pening.” Oden told Mendelsohn that the two events “were not linked,” but added that city departments can coordinate better in the fu- ture to assure “those types of questions aren’t asked on the back end.” ▼ NEIGHBORHOODS STEAL THESE BOOKS A LITERARY PIRATE IS LOOTING OAK CLIFF’S LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES. BY EMMA RUBY T he social contract is being broken in Oak Cliff. Over the past few weeks, neigh- borly Cliff dwellers have woken up to find their Little Free Libraries wiped clean. The whimsical boxes operate on a “take a book, leave a book” honor system, and a tracker app shows that at least 30 boxes are regis- tered in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. But someone is taking all the books — genre, age group and subject matter not- withstanding — and leaving none, a clear violation of the unspoken understanding we all share when it comes to Little Free Librar- ies. An army of neighbors have taken to so- cial media to bring attention to this thievery and ask why anyone would target a minia- ture library, of all things. One Oak Cliff resident, Sheila Coughlin, posted on Nextdoor on Feb. 2 that her Little Free Library was looted overnight, leaving 45 books missing. In a plea to basic human- ity, she requested the taker return a title or two. “This neighborhood has kept it full of all sorts of books for years. I can’t remember the last time I had to add an additional book to what was there,” wrote Coughlin. “I am not sure why I am so upset about this, but I think it’s because this library was just for everyone, and when someone took all the books then everyone had nothing.” Coughlin’s post prompted several claims of similar infractions in the neighborhood. Two libraries were emptied out in Kings Highway (they took the dog treats, too!) on Jan. 12, and one was robbed in Sunset Hill on Jan. 11. At the latter library, a home secu- rity camera caught a silver pickup truck pulling up to the box in broad daylight. In the video, a young man jumps out of the passenger side and appears to clean off the shelves in less than 20 seconds. In the Reform Dallas Facebook group, Dallasites were reporting Little Free Librar- ies left empty as recently as Feb. 11. Everyone wants to know: why would someone do this? The most common speculation is that some errant teen is looking to make a quick buck on the resale market, but anyone who has ever taken a box of novels to Half Price Books knows that payout likely won’t cover lunch. The Observer office’s chosen theory is that a conservative Karen is taking book bans to the next level, ridding her neigh- borhood of not just the “problematic” vol- umes, but any book at all. How motivated by ideological book bans are teen boys like the one who was caught on camera, you ask? Please don’t poke holes in our theory. And what can be done in regards to this rash of emboldened book bandits? Techni- cally, the contents of a Little Free Library are, as the name suggests, free, which left us questioning whether a crime is being com- mitted during these literary cleanouts. We called the Dallas Police Department, which almost certainly has better things to be doing than worrying about the Little Li- braries of Oak Cliff. “Is it a crime to steal something if that something is technically free?” We asked, and they laughed and said they’d get back to us. A number of neighbors have suggested that the libraries be equipped with security cameras so that this pirate can be publicly shamed. Aside from that, though, the legal recourse for this fiendish behavior may not exist. If you’re looking to get a jump start on your spring cleaning, grab a title or two. We’re sure you have a stack of books you’ve been meaning to read for years collecting dust somewhere, and your neighborhood Little Free Library may be in need of a re- stock. ▼ EDUCATION UNEXCUSED ACTIVISM MORE NORTH TEXAS STUDENTS WALK OUT OVER ICE AS ABBOTT THREATENS CONSEQUENCES. BY AUSTIN WOOD M ore and more North Texas students are walking out of classes in protest of immigration enforcement as Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) threaten districts with conse- quences. On Feb. 3, TEA officials released guid- ance outlining penalties for teachers, schools and districts who “facilitate walk- outs” after Abbott called for an investigation into Austin ISD after protests at 14 Austin ISD district campuses. Approximately 100 Haltom City High School students walked out of classrooms around 10 a.m. the next day. “This country was built on immigrants,” one student said at the protest, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And on Feb. 5, more than 150 students walked out of Forney and North Forney high schools, as first reported by the Dallas Morn- ing News. Protesters waved the flags of Mex- ico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the United States, with one sign declaring “You can’t love our culture but hate our people,” the News reported. Students in Plano ISD and at Melissa High School also joined protests on Feb. 6, and Dallas ISD students held protests last week. The local walkouts mirror a broader na- tionwide backlash against ICE enforcement actions. Three major protests have broken out in Dallas since the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Rennee Good amid an immigra- tion crackdown in Minneapolis. The Adobe Stock New approaches are being taken to address homelessness in North Texas. Unfair Park from p3 >> p6
