Homeless in Dallas Cost Over $43 Million Per Year

(Dallas, Texas) Here's a cluster of interesting numbers from Dallas.

In 2000, the City of Dallas, Dallas County, other government agencies and charitable organizations spent a total of $20,341,000.00 serving the homeless population in our community. By 2006, that total had more than doubled to an estimated $43,785,577.00 annually.

Recent "point in time" census counts of the homeless population indicates that there are somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 homeless individuals on the streets of Dallas at any one time. About 1,000 are chronically homeless.

The chronically homeless use 50% of the shelter capacity of our community.

Almost half (43%) of those surveyed in 2006 reported that they were homeless due to the lose of a job. In that same count, 12% reported that they had been homeless on four or more occasions in the past three years.

Here in Dallas more than 45 agencies offer housing, food, medical care and counseling/employment services to the homeless population.

I'm skeptical regarding the accuracy of the population numbers simply because "between 5,000 and 6,000" is not a point-in-time census count. It's obviously an estimate.

And, logically, estimates of homeless populations tend to be exaggerated because the people who customarily conduct the censuses are the same people who receive funds to help the homeless. There is a built-in bias to enhance the numbers.

On the other hand, estimates are not immune to being low because entire groups of homeless can erroneously be missed. Nonetheless, I'd trust the former occurring much more often than the latter.


[Update 01/19/08]

Interestingly, according to this report, Dallas and Collins Counties will undergo a census of homeless people next Tuesday. It's also reported that the 2007 count found 5,163 homeless people in Dallas County.

The Dallas Homeless Alliance will conduct Tuesday's census, accompanied by Dallas Police.