The details
A city news release states that homelessness is on the rise in Fort Worth due to the end of the eviction moratorium and federal emergency rental assistance funds.
As a result of this increase, city officials are seeing emergency shelters near capacity most nights, resulting in a sharp increase in unsheltered homelessness. Residents also regularly report homeless encampments throughout the city.
To impact the areas hardest hit by homelessness, the news release states that, through this new contract, the city is directing resources to seven areas:
- Camp Bowie West/Las Vegas Trail
- Seminary/La Gran Plaza/Hemphill
- Downtown
- Near Southside
- Historic Southside/Near Eastside
- Beach Street intersections, from East Lancaster to North Tarrant Parkway
- Northside/Stockyards
According to the news release, outreach teams and police officers will refer homeless individuals to the pilot program who have either been reported in that area for a long time—more than two years—or are suspected of having severe mental illness. The level of services they can receive depend on individual need but include housing assistance and voluntary case management provided by My Health My Resources of Tarrant County.
The ordinance including the contract states that funding for the program was provided by decreasing appropriations in the nondepartmental contractual services category by $1.1 million and increasing the neighborhood services contractual services category by the same amount.
Next steps
The news release states that in order to gather sufficient data, the program will last 17 months—beginning May 1 and ending Sept. 30, 2025. City officials have identified three possible outcomes for when the program is completed:
- Data gathered from this pilot project will be used to analyze whether the program should continue, be expanded or end.
- If it is expanded, new areas will be selected based on areas in the city that have been most impacted by increased homelessness at that time.
- If it is expanded, resources that are being used to provide housing assistance and case management across the city would continue.
