During the April 15 council work session, City Auditor Madison Rorschach presented the audit findings, while Director of Community Services Jesse Kent presented city staff recommendations. One of the findings that stood out the most was that the Denton Community Shelter, run by local faith-based nonprofit Our Daily Bread, has not been operating within the expectations of its contract with the city.
According to the audit, Our Daily Bread “has not adopted housing-first practices as required by contract and has created a punitive punishment system that likely bars more people than necessary from assistance.”
As noted in the presentation, suggested housing-first practices include individuals not being required to enter emergency shelter as an ”interim step” to access stable housing and that the coordinated entry process should be used to prioritize individuals for housing. All new shelter guests are required to complete a coordinated entry assessment, which places them on the housing priority list. The city audit found that about 25% of guests did not have a completed coordinated entry assessment.
A Low Barrier to Housing
The report also notes that some low-barrier practices are in effect, they are not to the extent they should be to meet the contract’s requirements.According to the North Texas Daily, a Denton man who said he has stayed at the shelter since October, told the council he has experienced religious discrimination and retaliation and that “the morning Bible readings create a coercive environment.”
The shelter uses a lottery system to assign guests beds on a one-week basis. This system does not prioritize guests based on health or safety risks; instead, it puts people back into homelessness based on luck.
Rorschach shared that 88% of guests who received overnight shelter at Our Daily Bread were exited back into homelessness.
The report directly states that only three of the 10 rooms are designated for women, meaning that on some weekdays, women are not able to enter the lottery to receive a bed.
Guests enrolled in enhanced shelter are not required to participate in the lottery system. However, there is no application process or clear criteria for determining eligibility, which increases the risk of inconsistent or inequitable treatment.
“Guests do not receive dedicated case management work unless they are enrolled in enhanced shelter, meaning only about 11% of overnight guests had a housing placement plan,” Rorshach shared. “[That] took about 150 days to receive after entering emergency shelter and 47 days to receive after entering enhanced shelter.”
When reached for comment, a representative for Our Daily Bread said the group will be discussing the audit’s findings and may have a statement from its board of directors later.
Tracy Duckworth, also known as “Mama T,” a vocal advocate for Denton’s homeless population, spoke at the meeting, according to the NT Daily report.
“The audit even showed that there's three times the beds for men that there are for women,” Mama T said. “And are we talking about holding anybody accountable at all? [...] It sounds like everybody that has a contract with y’all and having anything to do with the homeless response system has broken said contract, and all we’re doing is rewriting contracts.”
Engaging Encampments
Another part of the city’s homelessness response that has been lacking, in large part, due to a lack of coordination among city departments, is how Denton engages with homeless encampments.“While the city has established guidelines to address encampments on city property, these are not clearly followed, and the encampment response has generally been reactive,” Rorsharch said during the meeting.
Historically, there has been no centralized list or coordinated monitoring of large encampments or places of interest, despite street outreach staff regularly visiting these areas. “Site inspections were not documented, and initial report inspections were conducted by law enforcement,” Rorschach noted, “which may not have always been the most efficient use of resources.”
Kent indicated that an encampment support solution is already in the works by explaining that “all of these different routes to identification are concentrated in the Community Services Department.”
The City’s Response
Of the 19 recommendations issued by Rorschach’s audit, the city agreed to 15, partially agreed to three, and disagreed with one. The agreed-upon recommendations include efforts to centrally track and regularly monitor all large encampment locations to inform closure and cleaning decisions and the creation of a process to allow for increased diversion of mental health calls that minimizes the involvement of law enforcement officers.Formalizing a coordinated procedure for offering assistance to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness during inclement weather events was also among the recommendations the city agreed to.
This audit will be subject to a formal follow-up review in 2027 unless the council directs the auditor to perform one sooner.
