Texas Heat and the Unhoused
Texas Heat and the Unhoused
Written By: David S. Gruber from Housing Forward
Have you, like so many of us, been lamenting the blazing Texas heat? It has been particularly intense this summer, which greatly impacts our unhoused neighbors.
We are honored to introduce David S. Gruber, the Senior Director of Development and Communications at Housing Forward. Below, David shares what we can do to help community members experiencing homelessness amidst the extreme heat. Housing Forward is one of the local organizations that Arapaho UMC works alongside in an effort to end homelessness in our local community.
From David:
What can you do to help our unhoused neighbors during the extreme heat we are experiencing? This question can and should be answered on two levels, the short term, and the long term.
In the short term, our community has been blessed with several entities who provide or serve as cooling stations for anyone in the community who is trying to escape the heat.
The Salvation Army has nine cooling stations in operation across North Texas. The City of Dallas’ libraries and recreation centers and the City of Plano’s libraries are open to the public during normal business hours. Our Calling is open Monday-Saturday from 8:30 am until 1 hour after the heat index is below 105. The options on weekends are not as plentiful. Check our I Need Help page for more info. Sharing this information with our unhoused neighbors is a great way to help.
Let’s be frank, though, cooling stations are a band-aid solution. This is not to say that band aid solutions are not important. Johnson and Johnson estimates that since the invention of the band aid, they have sold over 100 million of them. Still, it can’t end there.
What we really need to do is house people, because homelessness is a housing problem. Then they won’t need to go to cooling stations. Fortunately, we know exactly how to do that. In fact, In October 2021, Housing Forward kicked off the Dallas R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing initiative, aiming to rehouse 2,700 people by the end of September 2023. We have so far housed about 2,500. Earlier this year, Housing Forward announced that this initiative would be transformed into R.E.A.L. Time Rehousing with a goal of housing a total of 6,000 people by the end of 2025.
What can do to help? Did you know that you already are? It’s true. Arapaho UMC is a member organization of the All Neighbors Coalition, a collective of over 130 organizations across Dallas and Collin Counties, who work alongside Housing Forward in the fight to end homelessness in our community.
Make sure you take advantage of opportunities to educate yourself about homelessness and how we can solve it by listening to our podcast, We Are Neighbors, signing up for our newsletter, and watching our Hard Conversations series.
It is not that easy to find rental properties to house all the people we need to house, so if you own or manage rental properties, we need your help. Let’s talk today!
Finally, exercise your responsibility inherent in the most prominent office in our land, citizen. Become a YIMBY (yes, in my backyard). Make sure your elected officials know that you support housing our unhoused neighbors in your neighborhood. That is the only way we can end homelessness together.