One week before volunteers conduct their annual, federally mandated count of homeless living in Tarrant and Parker counties, Fort Worth officials have unveiled a handful of new projects aimed at improving the city’s response to homelessness.
Those projects include:
- Implementing citywide signage to discourage residents from donating to panhandlers.
- Increasing community outreach and education on homelessness.
- Developing an online landing page to consolidate the city’s resources for homelessness and to accept donations from residents wanting to help those experiencing homelessness.
The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness — and prevent others from reaching that point. Unsheltered homelessness refers to unhoused individuals who are living outdoors, while sheltered homelessness refers to those who are experiencing homelessness but living in temporary housing like shelters or transitional housing.
City officials plan to review and reallocate funding devoted to homelessness response, increase the number of people trained to conduct street outreach and create a strategic plan to guide homelessness efforts in the future…