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McKinney launches UT Dallas‑led navigator as part of "Better Together" homelessness effort
Summary
City Manager Paul Grimes told the Visit McKinney board the city’s Better Together initiative will use a UT Dallas team as a navigator to guide community conversations and produce recommendations for council later this year.
City Manager Paul Grimes told the Visit McKinney board on Feb. 24 that the city’s new Better Together initiative will be led in the near term by a University of Texas at Dallas team acting as a community navigator.
"We're not gonna solve homelessness, nobody has any idea that we're gonna solve homelessness, but what we're gonna do is reconcile it with our community," Grimes said, describing the project’s goal to identify local approaches and services. Grimes said the navigator will conduct research, lead community conversations and present a set of recommendations to the City Council in October or November 2026.
Grimes also reviewed related city activity — including a recent joint meeting with the McKinney Independent School District, progress on development and infrastructure projects, and the city’s strategic goal‑setting work — and stood for questions from board members. He framed Better Together as a council‑directed initiative and said the city expects the final recommendations to be McKinney’s own approach, informed by comparisons with other cities.
Next steps described to the board include public engagement sessions and research by the UT Dallas team; Grimes said the timeline anticipates council consideration of recommendations later this year. The board did not take formal action on the initiative during the meeting.
