City of Dallas weighs new housing solutions for homeless population

City of Dallas weighs housing solutions for homeless

The City of Dallas is considering both temporary Pallet shelters and permanent tiny homes as new strategies to house the homeless, with a privately-funded tiny home community for the chronically ill set to open in Ellis County by year's end.

DALLAS - The City of Dallas is looking into creative ways to house the homeless.

The ideas range from permanent tiny houses to temporary housing in individual Pallet houses.

What we know:

The idea of temporary Pallet housing is to get people off the streets who would not go to a congregate shelter.

A look at the Pallet home concept shows that they are 70 square feet for one person, or 120 square feet for two people, with community bathrooms.

The company that manufactures them says crime has dropped in areas where communities have opened in cities like Los Angeles, Denver, and Vancouver.

In a second concept, Our Calling, which provides day services for the homeless in Dallas, is opening a tiny home community in Ellis County.

Local perspective:

CEO of Our Calling, Pastor Wayne Walker, said the 500 square foot tiny homes are intended to be permanent and have their own bathrooms.

They will be for people who need assistance with self-care, like someone with cancer, or physical, or cognitive disabilities.

He explained the tiny home community will benefit North Texas as a whole.

"Every nonprofit that works with the homeless has individuals they don't know what to do with because they have long-term care needs. Those individuals become the bottleneck. They return to the ER, they can't get into housing because they can't self-care. This will free up those bottlenecks for all the nonprofits trying to get people housed," said Pastor Walker.

By the numbers:

Walker says the first phase is costing $16 million, which is about $125,000 per home.

He thinks it will set an example other communities will want to replicate.