City and nonprofit leaders cite housing gains since 2021 but warn resources are strained

City and Housing Forward officials told the Housing and Homeless Solutions Committee on June 10 that investments in diversion and rehousing since 2021 have reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness on any given night, but officials warned that rising inflow and shrinking short‑term funds have slowed progress in 2025.

Housing Forward President and CEO Sarah Khan said the 2021 system review revealed a “funnel” in which more people were entering homelessness than were exiting, and the city and partners began shifting resources toward low‑cost diversion and rehousing to create faster pathways out of the street and shelter systems. “This is a really light touch, low cost intervention,” Khan said of diversion, which places specialists at shelter intake to help people return to family or alternative housing with short‑term flexible assistance.

The committee heard that the combined changes have led to consecutive annual reductions in the point‑in‑time measure that counts people experiencing homelessness on a given night and that the system has housed nearly 16,000 individuals since 2021. But Khan said that progress “slowed in 2025,” citing both increases in people flowing into homelessness and the end of some rapid‑rehousing funds.

The report described three pillars of the Street to Home effort that began with a downtown operation: (1) a multidisciplinary outreach and behavioral‑health response targeted to places with concentrated homelessness, (2) accelerated diversion at shelter intake, and (3) expanded rehousing supports that combine rental assistance and case management. Khan highlighted a small group of about 20 people with severe behavioral‑health and substance‑use needs who required coordinated inpatient, crisis‑residential and housing placements worked “one by one” with hospitals, law enforcement and outreach teams.

Christine Crossley, director of the Office of Homeless Solutions, echoed Khan’s emphasis on aligning funding and said the city, county and private partners have “aligned the street to home dollars this year to help hold at bay spikes in unsheltered homelessness.” Crossley noted the city uses both point‑in‑time counts and year‑round inflow/outcome tracking; staff said the point‑in‑time count referenced in the presentation was conducted on Jan. 25 and that an expanded annual report would be released soon.

Khan and Crossley briefed the committee on a separate planning issue raised at a prior meeting involving the Saint Jude Oak Cliff permanent supportive housing project. Khan summarized the three elements required to create permanent supportive housing: a housing unit (capital or private market unit), rental assistance (subsidies) and supportive services. She said the continuum of care applied for supportive‑services funding that was conditioned on project‑based vouchers from the local housing authority, but the housing authority recently reached a “shortfall” and was directed by HUD not to issue additional vouchers while it balances budget authority. Khan said Housing Forward, the city and Catholic Charities are pursuing either a HUD exception for previously committed projects or county project‑based voucher options under an upcoming county RFP.

Committee members pressed for more granular monthly data on inflow, HMIS participation and recidivism. Daniel Roby, who handles system data, said the inclement‑weather shelter totals cover multiple weeks and therefore exceed a single‑night point‑in‑time count; he and staff offered to deliver the inclement‑weather and month‑by‑month HMIS metrics requested by council members.

Council members also raised concerns that reductions downtown had simply displaced people to other parts of the city. Khan and Crossley said the Street to Home model aims to pair public‑space management with immediate outreach and housing offers, but they acknowledged gaps where people remain unsheltered and reiterated that sustaining an end to concentrated street homelessness requires ongoing regional funding and capacity to house people exiting shelter.

The presentation closed with a commitment to model the resource needs for a 2026 phase focused on maintaining an effective end to street homelessness downtown while expanding the approach to other high‑priority locations and continuing systemwide investments in diversion and rehousing.