By Carla Davis
The homelessness crisis in Dallas County has city officials and homeless response agencies working overtime trying to help the thousands who are living outdoors.
According to the 2023 Point-in-Time census report, produced by Housing Forward, more than 4,000 individuals are experiencing homelessness on a single night in the combined Dallas and Colin County areas.
Building shelters is not enough anymore; homeless response agencies are starting to take a look at why individuals are experiencing homelessness rather than continuing to provide just a warm meal and overnight shelter night after night.
Dallas Life, originally named Dallas Rescue Mission, is making a definable impact in helping people find and sustain permanent housing with their Homeless No More program.
When Dallas Rescue Mission opened its doors in 1954, it could only house 25 men. Founder Reverend Robert J Key opened the mission in response to an increase in the homeless population here in Dallas during the postwar era.
Reverand Keys provided a little gospel, hot meals and shelter nightly until 1979. After the retirement of Reverend Keys, his successor Reverend James Starkes expanded to a larger building that allowed them to house more than 105 people and have the ability to provide shelter for up to 25 women with children.
Over the next 25 years, there were leadership changes, but the mission remained the same. By 2005 there was a recovery center, a computer school, GED classes were being offered and programs had been instituted to help seniors as well as those with mental health needs. In 2005, the ministry underwent another leadership change to Reverend Bob Sweeney, the current executive director, who authored the Homeless No More Program.
The program is a comprehensive, biblically based, in-house recovery program that is laid out in four phases over 10 months. During this time, the clients will participate in counseling along with a variety of classes developed to help them address core issues that have led to their current or continuous homeless situation.
Mary Ann Sweeney, director of the Homeless No More Program at Dallas Life, spoke about how those core issues have been the leading stumbling block for many of the d past program participants.
“Our recovery program has been successful but people would get drug-free, alcohol-free but they had their issues, the things that would make them relapse, the classes hit on every area that can cause homelessness,” Sweeney said.
The implementation of classes designed to address the five core reasons leading to homelessness: relationships, finances, drugs, alcohol, or mental health, along with the individual counseling sessions has been the main ingredient to the program’s astonishing graduation rate of 90 percent Sweeney explained.
Workforce development begins during the initial phase by working in the kitchen at Dallas Life, where clients can be trained to get their food handler’s license by Food Service Director Robin Murawski. There is also training available for Level 1 and Level 2 security officer positions led by Director of Security Sandy Vitatoe. Phase 2 begins a full schedule of recovery classes and workforce development continues as they work in either food service or security at Dallas Life. For many, this will be the only job or the first job they’ve had in a long time. This work experience can only be of help as it is in Phase 3 when things can be very difficult as they begin to pursue outside employment and apply for permanent housing. Even as the clients enter Phase 4 and are working off-site and making final plans to transition into their housing the classes and counseling remain a central part of the process.
I had a conversation with a homeless young man asking for spare change for work. I inquired about his work skills and made a few suggestions and his response stuck with me: “It’s hard to find and keep a job without a place to rest at night and to start fresh from in the morning.”
Finding safe and affordable housing is not an option for many of these graduates based on past or no rental history, financial requirements or even their criminal background. Having to find housing in the very environment they have just fought their way out of can be quite a challenge as well. To combat this obstacle the graduates are encouraged to get roommates to help with costs and to have some moral support. Sweeney shared that many of the upcoming graduates have already made this decision.
The program has been broken down into four groups based on ability and need. Their men’s and women’s programs are designed for those with the capability to hold down a full-time job and live independently. The approach to assisting seniors, veterans and those with disabilities is handled differently. There is assistance available to help with the applications for disability assistance for seniors and those with mental and physical disabilities. The mental health organization Metrocare comes and assists those who need their medications refilled and the Parkland medical van comes twice a week to offer no-cost health care services. They work directly with the Veterans Administration to assist homeless veterans and graduates who are not able to live on their own are assisted in finding group homes. The program leaves no one out.
First-time residents can stay three free nights, and after that, they must choose between the Homeless No More program or their Pay-To-Stay program at $15.00 per night. Dallas Life offers a pay-by-the-night program for residents who may have outside jobs but just need that place to rest and start fresh every day. Some are seasonal workers or just passing through. According to their website, 65% of their residents choose the Homeless No More program speaking to its effectiveness.
Once a resident chooses the program there is an intake application and screening process conducted by Sweeney who said that there are very few reasons an applicant could be turned away. For example, if a mental health patient has been off his meds for more than 2 months they will need to get back on their medications and then reapply. Of course, certain criminal convictions can cause a decline due to safety reasons, a short list of the rules and regulations can be found on their website.
The testimonies on their website give credit to the hope they have instilled in the people and the success of their program.
“We want them to thrive not just survive,” Sweeney said with heartfelt sincerity.
The following story is about LeeAnn, a recent graduate from the Homeless No More Program whose enthusiasm for the future came from spending 10 short months at Dallas Life.
LeeAnn’s Story –
As I listened to LeeAnn tell her story my admiration for this lady only grew. At 62 years old, she is finally at a place in her life where she feels safe and secure.
She became a wife and a mother very young. It was with husband number four that her life took a turn for the worse. She moved away from everyone she knew with him to a small town in East Texas, and it was there she entered a life of selling and using drugs with him for the next 10 years. She decided to separate from her husband and moved to another small Texas town. She got a job at a convenience store and her existence was between the store and the trailer where she lived in the back for the next four years. Drugs were still playing a major part in her life. When she got fired from the job she went back to her husband and the same life for the next 15 years. He had moved her into a house with two other men where he eventually abandoned her and moved on to another relationship. When the owner of the house died it was then that she found herself on the streets of Quinlan Texas nowhere near any family. It began her journey of homelessness. She said she has slept in cemeteries, vacant houses and on porches. She recants going days without eating but was always resourceful when it came to getting drugs.
For LeeAnn, there was no family to turn to as she had been abandoned by her brothers because of her drug use. She had no relationship with her children. Her mother had passed away in 2003, and her only sister was on drugs as well and their relationship was not very healthy.
She made her way closer to Dallas and landed another job at a small beer and wine store where once again she was able to live in the back of the store. She continued to use and sell drugs for the next five years until she was fired once again for suspicion of selling drugs. Over the next several years this was the same path she took over and over in a different city.
LeeAnn said she did try the Homeless No More program in 2011 but was kicked out for an incident involving the C-Store, an onsite convenience store run by Dallas Life and manned by graduates. After being asked to leave Dallas Life she continued to try to work and do drugs. She bounced around from her sisters to other couches for a while and as she was told it was time to move on at the last place, she began to get tired of the rollercoaster. She was tired of the drugs and the life she was leading. It was then that she decided to stop using drugs and with nowhere to turn she remembered Dallas Life and their program.
I asked her why she thought the program at Dallas Life was the solution for her. She shared how she knew that it worked.
“When I got kicked out before, there was a girl that took me in. She had stayed clean and had gotten an apartment and I wanted that for myself,” she said.
With eight days clean from drugs, LeeAnn went back to Dallas Life, and she was allowed to reenter the Homeless No More Program. LeeAnn vowed to herself this time she would complete the program.
LeeAnn’s drive and determination have paid off well. She said the support of Mary Ann Sweeney and Robin Murawski has been something she has always dreamed of. They helped her navigate through resolving issues with some outstanding warrants; LeeAnn said this was her biggest stumbling block. They worked closely with her, and she was able to do community service at Dallas Life which satisfied her outstanding warrants. She described the feeling of having it resolved as “better than a Christmas present.”
LeeAnn graduated from the program successfully this time and is now a full-time employee of Dallas Life as an Assistant Manager at their C-Store. Her years of experience working in convenience stores have proven to be a real asset. For the first time in her life, she is in her very own apartment. She credits her success to her relationship with God, as part of the program they are encouraged to get a mentor and find an outside church. LeeAnn joined Reunion Church, and it was there she found her mentor and the sister she had always wanted in church member Stacy Sullivan. She claims this relationship with Sullivan and her family is the life she has wanted and never had.
Her response was emotional to my question if she thought the relationship with her children would ever mend.
“I hope for it, I pray for it, I yearn for it. I want it so bad,” she said.
She believes that once her son is released from federal prison, they may have a chance at reconciling but is skeptical of reconciliation with her daughter from all the hurt and pain. She prays to meet her daughters’ children but is grateful that she does have a relationship with her son’s daughter.
An 8-week Unforgiveness class has helped her have a better perspective on forgiveness. She understands now that forgiveness is for her healing.
“I was amazed at how much torment you can go through by not forgiving people,” she said.
LeeAnn said her peace has come in forgiving her sister, her dead mother and mostly herself. She spoke highly of the classes she took at Dallas Life saying the Bible study, relationship and anger management classes were most helpful to her.
She feels that the financial literacy and budgeting classes have prepared her to be able to maintain. Feeling very confident because for the first time she has money saved.
The support she continues to receive from Dallas Life and the support of her church has LeeAnn on a path to the life she has always wanted. One with love and people who care about her and her overall welfare. Good Luck LeeAnn.