There are a plethora of organizations spread across both Dallas and Collin Counties that focus their attention and efforts on a segment of our community that is often overlooked and neglected. Many of these organizations understand the weight of the task at hand and continue day-in and day-out to lean into the work of making the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring. I have also stepped into this collaborative space at a time when unprecedented federal and local dollars have been pouring into our region to either stave off the devastating impact that COVID has had on someone’s housing stability and/or to quickly work on rehousing individuals that have experienced life on the street. 

There are individuals focused on serving our youth population who are often the most invisible part of our unhoused population. 

There are veterans who have served our country and now must rely on the service of others to help find and obtain stable, safe, and secure housing. 

And there are whole families who have been negatively impacted by the worse our society has to offer in the way of equitable services and opportunities that find themselves with no place to go at the end of the day and are forced to either crowd into relative’s homes, sleep in their cars, or turn to shelters. 

And then there are those who struggle with mental health issues or drugs and alcohol and just don’t have the same means as others to support themselves in getting appropriate care, services, and assistance and often spiral into homelessness. 

And even in thinking through the huge swaths of those experiencing homelessness, our unhoused neighbors are not unlike any of the rest of us. And in describing the situations of many, I am significantly reducing the nuanced situations of over 4,000 people in our own communities that at any given time, are in need of safe, stable, and secure housing. There are unique circumstances and even more unique solutions for our unsheltered brothers and sisters. 

The Homeless Response System continues to work to respond and meet those unique and nuanced needs. The work currently being done is focused on a collaborative approach that seeks to ensure no one falls through the cracks. There are individuals with a heart for this community that I am grateful to see stand in the gap. There are dollars being poured into filling those gaps to help bolster the work required. And then there are the people that have worked within the broken and inadequate systems with complicated and often confusing policies making the work difficult to do, even in the best circumstances. 

I am awed by the resilience of this community. Not only those serving, but those being served. I am in awe of the very nature of the folks whose hearts work within a system that is not the easiest to simply get people housed. I am appreciative of their tireless labor and their dedication to service. I am truly blessed to find myself here at Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance that serves those who serve. Our North Star and one I have spoken passionately about with my team, is that we ensure we are creating and maintaining a system that works best for those that need it to work best. The work is important, the impact is greater, and the people we are able to serve are absolutely worthy of all of our hands being at the plow. 

A huge thank-you to the team I get to work alongside each day. Thank you for the opportunity to step into this space and thank-you for your support and your commitment to doing the work each day. I continue to enter each day inspired by all of you and with a sense of wonderment and a renewed spirit to learn and to serve. Onward in service beside MDHA staff and partners, the work is plenty.

For the Dallas TRHT organization and the work that we do, there is an intentionality in why we talk about transformation, instead of reconciliation. The framework and all of us that have signed up to do this work in this city and across the country, via an initial grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, understand that to reconcile relationships across races and systems, there must be something to be reconciled to.

There must be a prior equitable relationship and system to be reconciled to, and the truth of our city is that we cannot point to that place. We cannot point to a time in our city’s history that was fair and equitable for all. Because of the trappings of our past and the crushing impact of racism on our present-day relationships, we must be willing to do the hard work of transforming our relationships and our systems to be more equitable in serving all people. 

Leaning into the discomfort and writing about race and racism, I know that I am possibly contributing to the unease that many feel when even bringing up the topic of race and racism. But why the discomfort, why the feeling of unease? The discomfort comes because many of us are unwilling to ask the hard questions or hear the even harder answers of how racism negatively impacts all aspects of our lives.

The discomfort comes from realizing that the trappings of racism are still present and impacting our daily lives. We must be willing to lean deeper into the conversations and more than the continuous dialogue, we must uproot the threads of racism that are woven into many of our societal structures that lead to disparate outcomes for many people of color.

Some of us are privileged enough to go through life and never be confronted with how real racism is in constructing barriers for some, while providing a head start for others. This is what makes the conversation around racism so difficult. The lack of understanding of the racist effects of a broken criminal justice system, education, employment, housing, healthcare, and economic system, makes it hard to empathize with someone who may not look like you or have your shared life experiences. 

There’s an added layer of the conversation around race and racism that is even more difficult for most of us to discuss and that is how race is often incorrectly discussed in extremely binary ways. There are seemingly only two sides of the conversation. There’s an us and there’s a them. There is a discomfort talking about race even within minority communities that keeps us from understanding how our diverse shared histories and futures are all interconnected.

For the sake of not discussing race and not offending or bringing up wounds that have yet to heal, we generally have a few different ways we like to approach the conversation, we either act like we are a post racial society and that equality is out there for anyone who needs it and we vehemently stick to our argument that we don’t need to address the hurtful truth of our past or we try to ignore the problem altogether and make the race and racism conversation more about socioeconomics, education or anything other than calling the thing, the thing.

A lot of brave people have and are continuing to meet this hairy, messy, uncomfortable topic head on. This is the TRHT framework at its best. It seeks to tell the truth about our city’s history. And not just a one-sided truth, but the truth of all people. A history that includes our recognition of the land on which we enjoy such great prosperity today, began in the hands and the care of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. 

We continue in recognizing their hard work and labor as we pursue the process of telling the truth about our shared history here in Dallas, no matter how hard or ugly or hurtful that history may be. We build upon that historical truth, avenues for racial healing and relationship-building, all in our effort to transform systems, organizations, and individuals that build and contribute to the creation of a more just and equitable city.

Help us continue the hard work hard yet rewarding work. Lean into the discomfort of the conversation around race and racism and join the work that is striving to make our city better for all, and not just for some.