Homelessness

Civil Rights Leader Peter Johnson Excoriates Council for Proposal to Bus Out Homeless

Last week, as they City Council was being briefed on the still very incomplete effort to end chronic homelessness in Dallas, a frustrated Dwaine Caraway proposed a surefire solution: Why not round up the homeless people, stick them on a Greyhound bus, and send them back to where they came from? Most ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Says Dallas is the "Homeless Capital of the World" and Should Bus Them Out of Town

It's been a decade since the city of Dallas announced the development of a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, a quest that, as a short stroll downtown will tell you, has fallen short of its goal. There are still plenty of people without homes. That's not to say the program, which has focused ... More >>

Dallas' Homeless Say the City Tore Down Their Camp, Trashing Meds, Clothes in the Process

"They came by the other day and swept some of our stuff up," Michelle complained. She's a petite black woman in her mid 40s, with chin-length hair partially hidden under a black and orange knit cap. On a recent weekday morning, she was perched atop an upside down bucket, blowing on her hands to keep ... More >>

The Dallas Police Are Clearing Homeless from Along the Katy Trail

Dallas police were out in force near the Katy Trail earlier this morning, with four squad cars and at least as many officers gathered in the grassy area at Hall Street sandwiched between the trail and Turtle Creek. A few officers were by the brush along the trail, near where a blue folding chair sa ... More >>

Benny Barret is Homeless(ish)

For the past three and a half years, Benny Barret taught Latin at a Catholic high school in Waco. Now he's living on the streets and in homeless shelters in downtown Dallas. Except, that is, when he needs a break. "My job was killing me," Barret says, sitting at a table in Main Street Garden Park o ... More >>

With the Benches Gone from the Downtown Library, the Homeless Wonder What's Next

Until recently, if you walked along the eastern wall of the Dallas Public Library, you would have to weave your way through a gathering of homeless people idling there. Never gave me much of a problem, but apparently something went down because, as Rudy Bush noted yesterday, Downtown Dallas, Inc. qu ... More >>

Homelessness in County Is Down Overall, But There Are More Homeless Children Than Ever

In late January, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and a team of volunteers hit the city's streets and shelters to count the homeless . The count is something hundreds of cities do each January as part of the requirements to receive federal funding, but it also helps MDHA understand where the agency is ... More >>

No, Seriously, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Wants To End Chronic Homelessness By 2015

President and CEO of Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Mike Faenza said as much yesterday: He knows he's "at risk of looking like Don Quixote" here, but he really, really believes Dallas can end its chronic homelessness problem by 2015. Which is why earlier today he did his best to convince the city co ... More >>

In the Dark, In the Cold, Counting the Homeless

The woman popped up from the pile of blankets she had laid out on a dirty patch of sidewalk and took a look at the ring of people surrounding her. She patted her woolen beanie self-consciously. "Why you takin' pictures?" she complained sleepily to a photographer. "I ain't put my hair on." Crystal ... More >>

Dallas Farmer's Market: Cut it Off at the Roots

It's time to admit the city-owned market is a failure.

The Good and Bad News Contained Within MDHA's "2011 State of Homelessness" Report

Metro Dallas Homeless AllianceA look at Dallas County's homeless population from the "2011 Annual 'Point-In-Time' Homeless Count and Census"​Leslie's at Dallas City Hall at this very moment, where Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance is announcing the formation of the Greater Dallas Homeless Policy Alli ... More >>

Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, The Bridge Explain Their Separation to City Council

​On Friday, in a briefing sent to the city council, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and the downtown homeless shelter The Bridge announced they would be separating their leadership, something that became effective Saturday. The Bridge is now its own separate non-profit and will be a member of t ... More >>

Throw the Bums Out

Buzz confronts our new nemesis, Angela Hunt

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Homeless?

​OK, let me ask you about something else, while we're on the subject. And first of all, I am not going to say anything negative or critical about rich people, because I don't want to offend anybody's religion. Today. But what about people who are super-duper chickenshit about the homeless? I ... More >>

On This MLK Day of Service, Street Art Intended to Spark Talk About Homelessness

​Just got the heads-up: At this very moment, volunteers with the bcWORKSHOP are out and about installing cut-outs like those you see below across the city, from North Dallas to downtown to White Rock and points in between. They're intended to raise awareness about how to end homelessness. ​The c ... More >>

We've Banned Their Shopping Carts, Outlawed Panhandling, Provided Homes For The Homeless--And Nothing's Worked. There May Be One Modest Proposal That Solves The Problem.

Stirred up by political opportunism, a progressive Oak Cliff neighborhood tries to keep out the homeless.

Cast Away

Is Cliff Manor Just Round 1 in a Long Fight Coming?

Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance's Mike Faenza Offers His Take On the Cliff Manor Controversy

Mark GrahamMDHA's Mike Faenza With the clock ticking on the Cliff Manor Task Force's 6 p.m. deadline yesterday, Patrick "Buzz" Williams and I had a chance to sit down with Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance director Mike Faenza, who wanted to offers his perspective on the fight over Cliff Manor that see ... More >>

Dallas Homeless Czar Keeps It Simple: "The Answer to Homelessness Is a Home."

Sam MertenMike Rawlings​As the city digs out from under a record snowfall -- and with the forecast calling for below-freezing temps and a freezing fog advisory -- it's hard not to think about the city's homeless population as Dallas attempts to move ahead with its plans to establish 700 units ... More >>

Homeless by Choice, James Wagnorne Blogs About Life on the Streets of Dallas

​Yesterday I met James Waghorne outside his home: a blue Aerostar van parked at the Travel Centers of America truck stop off I-20 and Bonnie View Road. This isn't the first time he's been homeless, just the first time since 2002. But this time is different, he says. For one thing, he hopes his tim ... More >>

Eddie Bernice Johnson Wants FBI to Include Attacks on the Homeless in Hate Crimes Stats

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson​Last year, The New York Times noted a sharp increase in violent crimes committed against the homeless -- up 65 percent from '05 to '07, according to statistics kept by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. But at the moment, attacks on the homeles ... More >>

At Homeless Games Day, A Respite From Life on the Street (But Not From the Heat)

Sam MertenCheck out our slide show! To a casual observer, Homeless Games Day at Reverchon Park looked like a typical company picnic or a church field day. The adults played volleyball, touch football, horseshoes and engaged in plenty of good-natured trash talk on the basketball court, while the kid ... More >>

As Downtown Struggles Back To Life, It’s Survival Of The Fittest For Urban Pioneers

Mayor Tom and Texas's Other Big-City Mayors Ask Governor for Help Handling Homeless

Gabriel Metsu's Man Writing a LetterNever had time to make it to the Texas Big Cities Mayors shindig at City Hall today. But no matter: Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall this evening forwards along a copy of the mayors' letter to Governor Rick Perry, in which Tom Leppert, Bill White (Houston), Mike M ... More >>

Homeward Banned

City Hall says its new shelter has solved our homeless problem. But not for those who have been banished from it.

The Bridge: An Overwhelming Success But Also "Overwhelmed"

Looking For a Home|Rotten Apple

Dallas' The Bridge Homeless Center's Progressive Approach May Actually Make a Difference

With a no-hassles approach to panhandlers, Dallas' new shelter hopes to kill homelessness with kindness

Sanctuary Isn't Simple for Dallas' Homeless

Dallas' Homeless Find A Place to Sleep -- in a Downtown Church's Parking Lot

Dream a Little Dream

Is that optimism stirring in Buzz's black heart?

The Gut-bucket Gospel

Dallas' Street Church will meet you where you are, even if it's in a crack house

Old Building, New Lives

How do you help the homeless? Duh, give them a home.

Fighting back against the library's homeless police

Live from City Hall

The Mayor of Boxville

Laura Miller to homeless: Get out of downtown. Homeless to Laura Miller: We've got our own mayor.

Get the Funk Out

Don't get funky if you want to go to Houston's library

A Place of Their Own

Tom Dunning's homeless task force learns an old lesson: If at first you don't succeed, try again.

Letters

Garbage to You

Homeless people, like all of us, own things that can't be replaced

Boxcar Miller

The floating homeless encampment settles in at Dallas City Hall

Lysol Miller

Enough with the Martha Stewart act. Fix some potholes, will ya?

Homeless Cleansing

Proposed "intake center" for homeless looks scary

Nervous Nellie

Plus: One-Way Street; Quotes Taken Out of Context From Other Publications

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

For Hal Samples, who uses photos to help the homeless, nothing—and everything

Letters

Make Yourself at Home

Want to know why the city is making plans for the homeless downtown? Visit the library, but don't take the kids.

Protect and Serve

Plus: Choosing Street Life

Someplace Like Home

Does Miami hold the key to solving Dallas' downtown homeless problem? Maybe, but it's a very expensive key.