A homeless camp known as "tent city" will receive the full attention of Dallas city council members Wednesday.
Several council members, including Mayor Mike Rawlings, want the homeless out and tent city closed by next month. Rawlings has worked on the city's homeless problem for a decade and served as the city's homeless czar before eventually becoming mayor.
Rawlings told NBC 5 Wednesday he hopes the council will take three things out of Wednesday's briefing on homelessness. He wants the council to get an idea as to who the homeless in the city are, where they come from and what they are going through. He also wants to hear about long-term solutions to end chronic homelessness, which he says is permanent supportive housing.
Chronic homelessness is defined as anyone who has been homeless for more than a year or anyone who's been homeless four or more times in the last three years totaling more than a year. A person must also possess a documented disabling condition.
The third thing Rawlings wants to discuss is plans to close "tent city" by early May. Tent city is beneath the Interstate 45 bridge near downtown and went from 60 residents last summer to more than 300 just a month ago.
"We're starting the first part of May," he said. "And we've got nearly 200 people down there and we've got to find them beds in a place. Now they may not want those beds, but they're not going to congregate under the bridge. It's not safe for them, it's not safe for the city."
The city started issuing closure notices to tent city residents in March. The briefing to the city council states that 20 people have already left tent city through assistance and another 23 are scheduled to move out in the next 10 days.
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Rawlings said the city and its partners need to find somewhere for all of those in tent city to go.
"Permanent supportive housing has got to be there," he said. "We've got to invest in that and getting those initiatives teed up are critical."
Rawlings said he's looking forward to hearing some specific recommendations on housing options during the briefing, including some form of permanent housing like shelters. There will also be discussion of using vacant facilities like the old Parkland Hospital building as an emergency shelter.
