Lead gifts committed by Bank of America, Margot Perot and the Perot Family, and W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at Communities Foundation of Texas. The Collaborative on Homelessness, group of Dallas funders led by the Meadows Foundation, also a leading contributor.
DALLAS – Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) today announced major private gifts totaling $10 million to a historic homeless “rapid rehousing” program.
The donations to the Dallas R.E.A.L Time Rapid Rehousing (DRTRR) initiative satisfy the private fundraising needed for a program that will house more than 2,700 people and families experiencing homelessness over the next two years.
The rest of the $72 million initiative is being funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars allocated by local governments and DHA – Housing Solutions for North Texas. Specifically: the City of Dallas and Dallas County each allocated $25 million; DHA, Dallas County and the cities of Mesquite and Grand Prairie contributed 758 emergency housing vouchers.
The private funds raised by MDHA will be used to cover vital aspects of the program. Landlord incentives are payments made to landlords, often in the form of additional deposits, to induce landlords to accept tenants paying with subsidies, which they are not required to do under Texas law; without these incentives, generating housing inventory would be significantly more challenging. Move-in kits provide clients with basic necessities upon moving into a new home, such as a bed, linens, dishes, etc., without which they would be less likely to remain in the housing provided. Finally, the privately-raised dollars will be used to fund necessary administrative and capacity-building expenses necessary for partner agencies to manage the volume of clients they will be serving.
The funders comprise 19 families, corporations, organizations, and foundations, with Bank of America, Margot Perot and the Perot Family, and Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) each committing $2.0 million. The CFT commitment is a part of a $3.3 million total commitment by the Collaborative on Homelessness, a group of Dallas foundations founded by The Meadows Foundation that includes Lyda Hill Philanthropies, The Dallas Foundation, Hoblitzelle Foundation, King Foundation, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and an anonymous foundation.
In addition to the funders mentioned above, DRTRR has received support from: Downtown Dallas, Inc., the Muse Family Foundation, The National and Todd Interests, the Dallas Citizens Council, Toyota, Beck, JP Morgan Chase and Co., Woods Capital, Headington Companies, and Ryan, LLC.
Joli Robinson, CEO of MDHA, stated, “The tremendous support shown by our local philanthropic community to support our DRTRR initiative is truly inspiring. The impact of these gifts is sure to greatly increase our efforts in serving our unhoused neighbors, not only in meeting their housing needs, but also with much-needed wrap-around services. I am particularly grateful to our Collaborative on Homelessness partners and MDHA team who work tirelessly in this space and with great dedication, in making the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring in Dallas and Collin Counties.”
“When Bank of America heard about this initiative, we knew we needed to go all in,” said Jennifer Chandler, Bank of America Dallas President. “DRTRR aligns with the core values of Bank of America and will help us advance our goal of building communities that thrive. With a strong commitment to the Dallas area, including financial centers across the city and our local headquarters downtown, our Bank of America teammates see every day the homelessness crisis in our community, and we simply could not pass up the opportunity to be part of the solution.”
Margot Perot added, “It is heartbreaking to see so many of our neighbors suffering through the crisis of homelessness. We are honored to play a small role in restoring dignity to their lives and in taking a major step toward ending homelessness in our community.”
“Communities Foundation of Texas seeks to fund initiatives that build thriving communities for all and that are fueled by collaboration and collective impact. We know that we are all more effective when we work together under a unified strategy,” said Dave Scullin, President and CEO of CFT. “DRTRR is the definition of collective impact, with multiple governments, agencies and funding sources coming together to work as a team to tackle the vexing issue of homelessness. We were thrilled to participate in the Collaborative on Homelessness in 2019 and are even more thrilled to now make a leadership gift to the DRTRR initiative.”
“Homelessness is impacting so much of our community. It presents a unique opportunity for philanthropic funders to propel change by taking creative risks on new ideas,” said Peter M. Miller,
President and CEO of The Meadows Foundation. “I am grateful to my colleagues and partners at the Collaborative on Homelessness for their willingness to join Meadows’ efforts to revamp our homeless response system and now to continue their generous support of DRTRR. It is incredible to see how far we have come. The Meadows board and family are excited to see this work translate into housing for so many of our neighbors.”
Kourtny Garrett, President & CEO of Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), said: “The DDI Board of Directors immediately recognized the historic opportunity that the DRTRR presented, voting unanimously in July to allocate $500,000 to the initiative. We have full confidence that this program will be transformational for individuals experiencing homelessness in our urban core that our own Homeless Outreach Team members work with every day. Rather than criminalizing homelessness, our approach is to help people get back on a path to housing and a sustained recovery. DRTRR presents our best chance yet to make that happen on a large scale.”
Peter Brodsky, Board Chair of MDHA, concluded, “When we announced DRTRR at the end of June, we knew we had a big mountain to climb to $10 million in time to launch the initiative by this fall. As usual, the Dallas community came together in spectacular fashion to support this once-in-a-generation opportunity. The support of the funding community is especially meaningful because the catalyst for this initiative came from the funding community itself. I would like to thank Peter Miller, CEO of The Meadows Foundation, for focusing the funding community on the potential for systemic change. I would also like to thank all our partners – the City of Dallas, Dallas County, Dallas Housing Authority, Cities of Mesquite and Grand Prairie, and the generous funders announced today. Most of all, I want to thank the 100+ agencies of the Collaborative on Homelessness and their hard-working staffs, who will be pulling the laboring oar as we work to house over 2,700 of our neighbors.”
