By spring of 2024, it was impossible to deny that visible chronic homelessness in Downtown Dallas had reached an unacceptable level.
Unacceptable for the hundreds of men and women who were sleeping outside.
Unacceptable for the 16,000 or so people who chose to live in Downtown apartments, condominiums, and townhomes.
Unacceptable for City leaders who could see most of the encampments from their City Hall windows.
Housing Forward, the nonprofit backbone agency for regional homelessness response, developed a strategy in coordination with Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), City Hall, and numerous other partners from the All Neighbors Coalition. They called it Street to Home, and they moved quickly and methodically to place more than 100 people experiencing homelessness into housing in less than 100 days.
It was the start of a more than two-year effort that, combined with increased policing and privately funded overnight patrols, has driven street homelessness in Downtown Dallas down by 87%. On one recent early morning, DDI’s Homeless Outreach Team found no homeless people sleeping in Downtown parks. Just a few years ago, early morning totals routinely topped 200.
Now, voters can bring similar proven strategies countywide by voting for Dallas County’s Proposition A.
I work for the campaign advocating for this ballot measure. But my front-row seat working for DDI and Housing Forward for the past few years has shaped my conviction that Proposition A is our best chance to address the homelessness we still see every day in far too many corners of our neighborhoods. That’s why I have a sign in my own front yard (get yours here) and why I’m urging my own friends, neighbors, and readers to vote for it.
Proposition A would increase property taxes for owners of a median-valued home by $5.36 per month. It would also generate about $100 million in its first year alone, money that would be deployed as soon as January 1, 2027, as part of a comprehensive plan Housing Forward presented to Dallas County Commissioners before they voted in August to call this election.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and his fellow commissioners would oversee the plan’s implementation, including:
Emergency services to get people off the streets quickly, rather than routing them to a hospital bed or jail cell.
Mental health and addiction treatment in cases where a shelter bed alone is not enough.
Job connections and short-term help for people who need a bridge back to self-sufficiency, not long-term services.
Housing and intensive support for people with the greatest needs.
Every hour of every day in America, more people fall into homelessness. The cities and counties best equipped to solve this problem have unified strategies and sustained funding.
Since 2021, the county’s coordinated response has helped more than 25,000 people out of homelessness. The problem is scale. We’re still only reaching about 60% of the households falling into homelessness every year. Proposition A will help close the gap by reaching about 4,500 more households each year.
Early voting starts on Monday, October 19. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. I hope you’ll join me in voting for Dallas County Proposition A.
Next week, I’ll share my thoughts on the other Proposition A on City of Dallas ballots, a $443 million public safety bond package.
For more on this and other hot topics, join me over on the new Meetings of Interest Community Page. I’ll be posting updates, videos, GIFs, and more throughout the week. It’s like a Facebook page, but (hopefully) without all the personal attacks and misinformation.
📖 Table of Contents
🗞️ ICYMI: Highlights From Last Week
Members of the City Council Ad Hoc Committee on Administrative Affairs appear to support letting the public hydrate — and maybe even indulge in a little snack — while sitting in Council Chambers. But they want to hear from city security officials on best practices at a future meeting before launching a potential pilot.
This Domestic Violence Dashboard, first published in 2022, breaks down incidents by crime type, location, time of day, victim age, shelter calls, and total people served. More on the state of domestic violence in Dallas is noted in a briefing linked below. Read more.
Sales tax collections through 11 months of the 2025-26 fiscal year were $3.2 million below budget, according to this update covering up to the end of August 2026.
🔢 Number of Interest
25,000+
Number of people who were helped out of homelessness through Dallas County’s coordinated response since 2021. Dallas County Proposition A on the November ballot would expand proven strategies to help thousands more people who fall into homelessness every year.
🤝 Meetings of Interest: October 12 - 16, 2026
Tuesday, October 13
🚔 Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Briefing: Domestic Violence Update
Incidents of domestic violence are up by about 5% so far this year, following years of declines dating to at least 2022, according to Dallas Police Department statistics. This update comes during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, when residents are encouraged to wear purple to raise awareness and support victims.
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Overall violent crime is down by nearly 10% in Dallas this year, led by reductions in robberies with 269 fewer victims as compared to the same time period last year. Learn more.
Dallas Police exceeded the department’s hiring target of 350 officers for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, reporting that 378 new officers joined the force last year. Current sworn strength is 3,447 officers. Read more.
Officer response times to 911 calls are substantially faster on average than last year, but DPD is still missing its goal in all four priority categories, according to the latest monthly public safety dashboard report.
The city’s Emergency Management & Crisis Response office will brief committee members on major work this year. Highlights include responses to a January winter storm, a May Oak Cliff apartment complex explosion, the FIFA World Cup, and the September midterm Republican convention. The report does not mention the $443 million City of Dallas Proposition A bond on the Nov. 3 ballot, which includes $40 million to move the EOC and 911 call center out of City Hall and into another city-owned building. Read the briefing.
🚌 Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Committee-of-the-Whole, 4 p.m., Board Room, DART Headquarters, 1401 Pacific Avenue, Dallas, TX 75202
DART board members will also discuss renewing their contract with Swiftly, the software company behind the agency’s bus scheduling analysis and the arrival predictions in the GoPass app, for up to $4.4 million over five years. The yearly price climbs from $773,212 to $994,715 by the final option year. DART says the data is working: 29 of the 44 schedule changes it based on the software (66%) made buses more punctual right away, including Route 106 Bickers, which went from 61% on time to 82%. DART is a GoldHam Group client.
Wednesday, October 14
🗣️ Dallas City Council Meeting, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Item 4: Dallas will pay Dallas County up to $9.3 million to book and hold City jail prisoners at Lew Sterrett from this month through September 2027. It’s the annual renewal of a deal dating back to 1978, but it has stirred some colorful discussion in recent years.
Item 5: The Dallas Public Facility Corporation wants to own a 420-unit mixed-income complex at 1910 E. Wheatland Rd. near the UNT Dallas DART station, and lease it for 75 years to an affiliate of Hoque Global and Anchor Capital. The City gives up about $3.66 million in General Fund tax revenue over 60 years. In return, the DPFC expects $55.9 million in fees, and staff projects $79.8 million in rent savings for residents.
Item 6: This is the second and final one-year renewal of The Bridge’s rapid re-housing contract, adding $119,549 from the federal Emergency Solutions Grant and bringing the total to $394,458. The money pays for short-term rent help and case management for people leaving homelessness through the City’s only low-barrier shelter.
Item 9: Black & Veatch gets another $5.6 million to manage construction on the Mill Creek/Peaks Branch/State-Thomas drainage tunnel, originally due for completion in 2024 and now projected to be “substantially complete” in 2028. This is the third supplemental agreement, increasing the contract from its original $19.8 million to $37.9 million. The memo attributes project delays to a late boring machine, COVID, supply chains, and equipment breakdowns.
Item 16: Staff found that 10 state grant resolutions approved over the past year lacked the wording and formatting the Governor’s Office now requires, mainly naming who signs, who handles the money, and who runs each project. Council will amend all 10 at once. The grants cover the DPD training center at UNT Dallas, victim services, crime lab upgrades, and a city firewall project. The scope and dollar amounts don’t change.
Item 25: This is the City Council wish list for the 90th Texas Legislature, which convenes in January. The top priorities include tools to enforce residential density caps and occupancy limits, fewer barriers to building condos, incentives for office-to-housing conversions, and new local fees to pay for school crossing guards. The City also wants to back a new DART governance model it’s working on with the other member cities, fund parks within a 10-minute walk of every home, add police recruitment incentives, and stiffen penalties for firing a gun in public. Read more.
Item 26: The federal program for the 120th Congress looks a lot like the state one. Read it here.
Item 27: The proposed 2027 calendar notes December 20 as the inauguration date for a new mayor and City Council.
Item 29: Closed session for legal advice on Trinity Bible Church of Dallas v. City of Dallas, a First Amendment case alleging the City is “improperly restricting religious liberty” by not allowing Trinity to open a school without proper permits, as reported earlier this year by Dallas Morning News editorial columnist Robert Wilonsky.
Z1 (Preston Royal): This is the rebuild of the corner flattened by the 2019 tornado. Developer Leland Burk wants a new planned development on 7.3 acres at Preston and Royal: three towers of 18, 19, and 12 stories with apartments, for-sale condos, and a hotel, plus a two-story restaurant village. Some neighbors are not on board, as you may have noticed from all those “NO skyscrapers, NO Rezoning” yard signs in North Dallas. City Plan Commissioners still recommended approval 10–4.
Z7 (Club Vivo, 1930 Pacific): The bar and dance hall at Harwood and Pacific wants its permit renewed for two years, with hours from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. The club has a rocky record with the City: Plan Commissioners turned it down in 2019 and again in 2024 before Council sent it back and approved an 18-month trial in January 2025. Since then, police logged 40 offenses at the address, mostly car break-ins and some assaults, along with seven arrests and 19 calls. Plan Commissioners held the case twice this summer, then recommended approval 14–0.
PH1 (Texas Capital ticker): Texas Capital wants permission to put a digital stock ticker on its headquarters at 2000 McKinney Avenue. The ticker would wrap up to three sides of the awning along Harwood and McKinney, with messages changing every 8 seconds instead of the standard 20. Plan Commissioners approved it 14–0 after adding brightness limits, a 10 p.m. shutoff, and a ban on outside advertising.
PH3 (Pettis Norman, ceremonial): A fallback option to the next item, it would put honorary “In Honor of Pettis Norman” signs on the Houston Street Viaduct. Norman played tight end for the Cowboys from 1962 to 1970, marched for civil rights, and later founded the Dallas Together Forum. City code bars honorary names until two years after a person’s death, so this still needs a three-quarters Council vote to waive that rule, as Norman died in July 2025.
PH4 (Pettis Norman, renaming): This is the full version: officially renaming the viaduct “Pettis Norman Bridge.” It needs three waivers requiring a three-quarters vote: the name exceeds the 14-character limit, the two-year rule applies here too, and the bridge is on the National Register, which bars changing a historic street name. Council Member Zarin Gracey deferred it in September, and the ceremonial option above was filed that same day.
PH5 (Exchange Place): Mayor Eric Johnson and Council Members Jesse Moreno and Gay Donnell Willis want to rename North Harwood between Woodall Rodgers and Harry Hines “Exchange Place” to welcome the Texas Stock Exchange, which is moving its headquarters to what would become One Exchange Place. Harwood has had its name since 1872, so this needs a three-quarters vote to waive the rule against changing historic street names. Plan Commissioners approved it 13–1. Moreno held the item under advisement in September, after an initial vote failed to meet the three-quarters threshold.
🗣️ Quote of Interest
Our plan has strong metrics and accountability. We’re going to eliminate those encampments as soon as we find them with this plan… by getting them into housing or getting them a bus ticket or getting them what they need to get away from homelessness.
A note to readers: Meetings of Interest is an independent newsletter curated and authored by The GoldHam Group Managing Partner Scott Goldstein and edited by GoldHam Managing Partners Sam Goldstein and Vana Hammond. The content, perspectives, or commentary presented herein reflect the views of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of any other organization, institution, or individual, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great week.
Best,
Scott Goldstein
Managing Partner
The GoldHam Group
Sam Goldstein, Scott Goldstein, and Vana Hammond are co-founders of The GoldHam Group, a southern Dallas-based boutique communications, events, and public affairs firm.
