DALLAS — Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance announced Monday that it has collected $10 million in private funds that will go towards a public-private homeless “rapid rehousing” program.
The money went to the Dallas R.E.A.L Time Rapid Rehousing initiative. With these donations, the organization will be able to establish a program that will house more than 2,700 people and families who are homeless during the next two years.
The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance is a nonprofit working in the homeless rehousing system. The organization is partnered with more than 90 public, private and nonprofit organizations.
The federal American Rescue Plan Act is funding the rest of the $72 million for this initiative. The is allocated by the local government and the DHA – Housing Solutions for North Texas.
The city of Dallas and Dallas County each provided $25 million. DHA, Dallas County, the city of Mesquite and the city of Grand Prairie contributed 758 emergency housing vouchers.
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The $10 million raised by Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance will be used to cover different aspects of the program, which include landlord incentives, home move-in kits and capacity-building expenses.
Landlord incentives are payments made to landlords, often in the form of additional deposits, to encourage landlords to accept tenants paying with subsidies, which they are not required to do under Texas law.
Move-in kits provide people with basic necessities upon moving into a new home, such as a bed, linens or dishes.
Capacity-building expenses will allow partner agencies to manage the number of clients they will be serving.
Joli Robinson is the CEO of Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. She said the type of support her nonprofit is receiving for this initiative is "truly inspiring."
"The impact of these gifts is sure to greatly increase our efforts in serving our unhoused neighbors, not only in meeting their housing needs, but also with much-needed wrap-around services," Robinson said. "I am particularly grateful to our Collaborative on Homelessness partners and MDHA team who work tirelessly in this space and with great dedication, in making the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring in Dallas and Collin Counties.”
“When Bank of America heard about this initiative, we knew we needed to go all in,” said Jennifer Chandler, who is the Bank of America Dallas President.
Chandler's company is one of the corporations that provided a donation for this rehousing initiative. She said it "aligns with the core values of Bank of America."
"With a strong commitment to the Dallas area, including financial centers across the city and our local headquarters downtown, our Bank of America teammates see every day the homelessness crisis in our community, and we simply could not pass up the opportunity to be part of the solution," Chandler said.
Some other companies that provided donations include Margot Perot and the Perot Family and the Communities Foundation of Texas.
Peter Brodsky is the board chair of Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. He said after his organization announced the initiative in June, "we knew we had a big mountain" to get to $10 million in donations by the fall.
"The support of the funding community is especially meaningful because the catalyst for this initiative came from the funding community itself," Brodsky said.
To learn more about the Dallas R.E.A.L Time Rapid Rehousing initiative, click here.
