The following announcement is reposted with permission from Housing Forward and the All Neighbors Coalition.
“The World Cup will come and go, but what will remain is the best-in-class homeless response system this community has spent the last five years building — one that has bucked national trends through a relentless focus on innovation, action, and results,” said Sarah Kahn, President and CEO of Housing Forward. “Our commitment to ensure no one is forced to sleep outside began long before Dallas was selected as a host city.”
This effort will build upon strategies developed as part of the All Neighbors Coalition Street to Home initiative, which contributed to a reduction in daily street counts of downtown homeless by 87%, according to our partners at Downtown Dallas, Inc. These strategies include:
- Coordinated street response team deployed in real-time to engage neighbors and make immediate connections to shelter, treatment, and housing options
- Shelters equipped to resolve homelessness through accelerated pathways toward recovery and self-sufficiency; and
- Specialized response for people with most severe mental health and substance use issues.
“As we count down to June 11, successfully ensuring residents and visitors have access to public spaces, while simultaneously meeting the needs of our unhoused neighbors, will define our success as a host city,” said Minal Davis, Chief Human Rights Officer of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee. “The work of the All Neighbors Coalition to put people into treatment, recovery, and stability, rather than moving them from block to block, is a win for the community.”
The address concluded with Coalition leaders highlighting a Dallas County tax measure proposal that would scale this proven model to every corner of Dallas County. This was followed by a panel moderated by Collen McCain Nelson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and executive editor and vice president of The Dallas Morning News. Panelists included Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, Austin Street Center CEO Daniel Roby, and Jennifer Erasime, senior vice president at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and executive director of Meadows Institute Dallas.
About Housing Forward – Housing Forward is the federally designated lead agency for the 150+ member All Neighbors Coalition, working collaboratively to solve homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties. We unite government, nonprofit, and private partners to resolve homelessness through coordinated action and strategic problem solving. Since 2021, the Coalition has end homelessness for more than 23,000 people. Learn more here.
At Housing Forward’s 2025 State of Homelessness Address, the“Street to Home” plan to end street homelessness in Downtown Dallas was announced. There, an additional $1M grant from CFT was announced to support this work.
In recent years, CFT has granted $3M to support Housing Forward’s initiatives to address homelessness.
