Dallas has 67 requests for help with homeless people that have not been addressed yet. Many of these requests are about homeless people living in public areas.
The City’s Office of Homeless Solutions has received 311 requests for help with homeless people. dashboard The office keeps track of the number and status of these requests over 30 days. In the last 30 days, there were 842 requests, and 774 of these requests have been marked as closed.
One of the requests submitted on Friday was about people living at 3108 N Stemmons Fwy in Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2. The person who made the request mentioned that people at the place were starting fires to keep warm at night.
Another request identified homeless people living in Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6 at the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and North Stemmons Freeway. This request was made on April 13 and is still open.
The person who made the request mentioned, “They are burning wood and objects under a highway bridge. This is dangerous for the structure due to heat.”
As mentioned earlier, reported by The Dallas Express, a fire that likely was started by a vagrant destroyed the things at an encampment and a big tree that was over the on-ramp to I-45 in Council Member Paul Ridley’s District 14 last year. The city did not seem to make much effort to look into this at the time.
In the past year, Dallas Fire-Rescue dealt with 1,058 trash fires, 825 dumpster fires, and 1,396 reports of illegal burning, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue’s incidents and response times. dashboardIt is not clear how many of these fires were started by homeless individuals or vagrants.
Another open request for help with homeless people was submitted on Friday. It mentioned an encampment at 1919 S Belt Line Rd. in Council Member Tennell Atkins’ District 8. The request notes “several tents and camp fires.”
Many of the requests mentioned that there is a lot of garbage and junk at the places where homeless people are living. This junk is sometimes near businesses or on public roads.
“While trash fires don’t usually cause much harm, they can be more dangerous than expected when they are close to buildings and other things that can catch fire,” Dallas Fire-Rescue previously told DX.
Polling conducted by DX suggests that around 75% of Dallas voters think homelessness, vagrancy, and aggressive begging are still big problems. Most people also seem to support the “one-stop-shop” homeless services model used by Haven for Hope in San Antonio. This model has been credited with a 77% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city’s downtown area.
Some local stakeholders are looking to bring this model to Dallas. However, it is not clear if the Dallas City Council will support this idea.
