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Longview mayor announces four community task forces to study homelessness, cites declines from post outreach work
Summary
Mayor Ray Wade announced four community-led task forces to study homelessness in Longview, highlighted the city’s Post police outreach team’s placement and ID-assistance statistics and said groups will deliver recommendations to council after roughly three months.
Longview Mayor Ray Wade on Tuesday announced the formation of four community task forces to study homelessness, asking the groups to meet for about three months and return recommendations to the City Council.
The mayor said the groups will examine front-line communication and data tracking, housing supply and transitional options, transportation and access to treatment and prescriptions, and strategies to increase public engagement. "Tonight I am announcing 4 groups that will be led and comprised of community members to look in-depth at the issues we face with our homeless community," Wade said.
Wade framed the action as building on work that began after a 2017 mayoral task force. He highlighted the city’s Post police outreach services team as a continuing success, citing figures he said were provided by the chief: in 2024 the Post officers helped 60 individuals obtain homeless IDs, placed 95 people in rehab or housing and made 355 contacts with people in camps; so far in 2025 the team has helped 55 people with homeless IDs, placed 25 people in rehab or housing and made 108 contacts.
Wade also described partnerships with the community paramedic program and the GLOW (Greater Longview Optimal Wellness) initiative, including a letter of support read from Gregg County Judge Bill Stout that credited GLOW with reducing EMS trips for participants by "approximately 50 to 55% per patient" since they joined the program.
Wade named the initial task force chairs and contact points and invited residents to apply online: Evan Doliv, Shativa Marshall, Kendra Tennison, Evie Henson, Tina Rushing and Alex Pope. He said the groups will consider steps ranging from improved real-time coordination among frontline services to recommendations on increasing affordable and transitional housing and improving participation in future point-in-time counts.
Wade said some recommendations could be implemented quickly while others will require long-term planning. "Goals for that group," he said, include "provid[ing] a recommendation how to give real time communication between frontline services and tracking of data or numbers with our homeless individuals, creating a step by step guide or booklet for our frontline individuals or homeless individuals and create an enhanced plan for future point in time counts."
