About 50 homeless veterans are gathering at the Dallas Central Library Wednesday for an event that aims to help them move into permanent housing. According to the Department Housing and Urban Development, homelessness among veterans increased 8% in Texas last year.
"Even with the increase, these numbers don't speak to the resilience and tenacity of our veterans," says HUD's Leslie Ann Bradley.
The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance says a collaborative effort has actually led to a drop in homelessness among veterans in Dallas and Collin Counties since 2019. MDHA says veteran homelessness has dropped 18% to a total of less than 300 people.
"Everybody has been coming together to solve a problem," says MDHA Board Chair Peter Brodsky. "One is too many, but we have way too many veterans who are un-housed. It's wrong, and it's got to be fixed."
Non-profits were working with federal agencies and the City of Dallas to host the event. Fifty veterans were expected to receive move-in support; 24 others were going to be signed up for services.
"Those who are veterans, who are without homes or need resources, we need to make sure they know they are important to us," says Dallas City Councilman Casey Thomas. "They are our VIPs, and we need to treat them as such."
Brodsky says service providers, including shelters, housing providers and street outreach, are working with federal agencies at the housing fair to provide services to veterans to help them on a path toward ending homelessness permanently.
"We're very excited about using this model going forward on the rest of the population," he says. "In addition to having way too many un-housed veterans, we have way too many un-housed civilians. All of this is geared towards achieving our goal of making homelessness in our community rare, brief and non-recurring."
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