Dallas County residents in Texas are headed toward a November vote on whether to devote more local revenue to homelessness services after Dallas County commissioners backed a ballot measure and approved the county's first tax rate increase since 2010.
That 3-2 decision now puts before voters a broader question about how the county should pay for homelessness-related outreach, housing assistance, and mental health treatment.
What happened?
On Aug. 11, commissioners approved a fiscal year 2027 tax rate of $0.2246 per $100 in assessed value and, in a separate 3-2 vote, placed a homelessness tax proposal on the November ballot, according to KERA News.
If voters sign off on the measure, the new tax would fund homelessness services such as outreach, housing assistance, and mental health care. The county would also agree to a contract of at least five years with the nonprofit Housing Forward, which would help channel money to housing and health care network programs.
Commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia voted against putting the proposal before voters.
Garcia said, "The voters deserve a well-designed plan with measurable objectives, and that is what is not there."
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County officials also stripped public safety-related provisions from the proposal language. Those removed items included added crisis intervention training for law enforcement and a jail-based effort intended to connect people who self-report homelessness while in jail with shelter and support services. With those changes, the adopted budget fell to about $1.59 billion.
Why does it matter?
The measure could produce about $100 million in additional funding for homelessness services if voters approve it.
That money could make outreach more reliable, create more routes into treatment, and widen access to stable housing for people living without shelter.
Additionally, Dallas County had not raised its tax rate in the prior 16 years.
What's being done?
Supporters said county officials have already narrowed the proposal to cover only essential needs.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said, "We don't need to tax the voters at a higher rate than 2.4. That's what the amendment is. We've worked that budget again and again. We've found those savings, so let's only charge what is necessary."
State rules required commissioners to first adopt the tax rate at its historic peak before asking voters to approve additional funding. If the tax rate election is defeated in November, the county would return to the voter-approval tax rate passed on Aug. 11, and the budget would revert to the original proposal.
Housing Forward, which introduced the idea of a dedicated homelessness tax in May, said the proposal could increase assistance across the county. KERA News described the organization as part of the All Neighbors Coalition, a countywide alliance of more than 150 public, private, and nonprofit groups working to end homelessness.
Housing Forward President and CEO Sarah Kahn said voter approval could help another 4,500 households leave the streets and get connected to treatment and stable housing.
"That is what residents are calling on us to do," Kahn said. "And this proposal gives them the opportunity to move from managing homelessness to actually solving it."
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