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Commission task forces report progress; decommissioning strategy moves to Office of Emergency Management
Summary
The Citizen Homelessness Commission received task force updates from public engagement, racial equity and data initiatives and was told the city's decommissioning strategy is being realigned from the Office of Homeless Solutions to the Office of Emergency Management's crisis response function.
Commission task forces reported recent activity and community outreach, and commissioners were briefed on a structural change moving the city's decommissioning strategy — the operational work around clearing encampments — from the Office of Homeless Solutions to the Office of Emergency Management’s crisis response team.
James Hong, chair of the Public Engagement Task Force, reported progress on a district-level graphic and sample communications materials and asked staff for a centralized file location where commissioners and the public can find consolidated materials. "We can add data to so that it's ready to go," he said, referring to the new graphic that will allow district-level statistics to be displayed for public consumption.
Vice Chair Tranika Brown summarized a March 6 Racial Equity Task Force event at the South Dallas Cultural Center that drew strong community turnout, included city and continuum-of-care representatives, and produced follow-ups on resident concerns such as 3-1-1 responsiveness at recent street-to-home sites. "We had an overwhelming response," Brown said, and she reported that attendees with specific questions were contacted and that staff verified follow-up actions on requested sites.
Krisha Kleinhoff, co-chair of the Data Drives Initiative Task Force, said the group did not meet quorum at its last meeting but is addressing a city memo that realigns certain operational responsibilities. Commissioners were told that decommissioning operations are moving under the Office of Emergency Management and that a Dallas Street Response reorganization will be presented to City Council in early May. Staff described new metrics in the memo as "super encouraging" and said task forces will track how the reorganization affects operational metrics.
Public engagement and data task forces also asked for monthly data promised to the commission and a clearer update cadence for the CHC website. Commissioners discussed using a CHC landing page and QR code to make materials and maps available to the public. Several commissioners volunteered to host district site visits and encampment briefings with city staff and private partners to ground task force work in neighborhood conditions.
Ending: The commission scheduled further briefings on the DSR reorganization and asked staff to provide the promised monthly data and an accessible repository for materials ahead of the planned HMIS-focused commission retreat.
