FORT WORTH – WBAP/KLIF – Housing and Urban Development says of the $101.3 million dollars earmarked for homeless programs in Texas, about 29.4 million dollars will help the homeless through programs administered in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex this year. These grants are part of 2. 2 billion dollars in grants just announced.
In 2019, most of the nation saw a slight decrease in homeless numbers, although on the West Coast, particularly in California and Oregon, homeless rates were driven up. Hud says more than half a million people experienced homelessness on a single night in 2019, increased by 2.7 percent since 2018, but nearly an 11 percent decline since 2010.
HUD Spokeswoman Patricia Campbell says the homeless rate for veterans has been driven down by 50% since since 2012, since the introduction of a new program between HUD and the VA/Veterans Administration. Veterans should speak with their case managers at the VA, which in turn will assess if the veteran is willing to accept case management in return for help with housing through this particular program. From that point, they will be directed to one or more programs locally that will benefit that particular veteran.
In 2019, a one night count saw Dallas list 4,538 homeless people, up by 417 from the count prior in 2018. The one night count in numbers for the Fort Worth/Arlington area in 2019 saw 2,028 homeless tallied, up slightly from 2,015 as a count in 2018.
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