Dallas’ vulnerable homeless people at risk

by Pat Spradley of Street Zine

Word on the street is that services at The Bridge appear to be improving. Management has instituted an easier procedure granting day passes to those needing them. Breakfast and lunch are available and facility services such as bathroom, showers, and laundry can be accessed once again by all homeless guests during the day. The facility is still restricted to overnight guests only for dinner. At 5:00 p.m. daily the premises is cleared out and only those with passes for overnight stays are allowed back in. It is not a perfect system but better than last reported.

Confusion is an enemy that will kill any plan and The Bridge has had plenty of confusion since opening in May 2008. There is nothing wrong with going back to the drawing board when chaos hits but we must recognize that those who were intended to be helped the most were the ones who suffered the greatest while mistakes and blunders were being made. Those who are suffering from mental illness will be some of the hardest to make amends with, and are among the numbers who are caught up in the current "quality of life" street sweeps downtown.

Whether they will admit it or not, The Bridge did succeed in alienating or driving away many of the target population the facility was built to assist. For most of us, normalcy means not choosing to sleep on the cold streets of Dallas but many do, either by choice or inability to find shelter for the night. The opportunity may have been lost to reach many individuals in that target group because of the chaos at The Bridge.

Currently, there are numerous rumors and reports floating around in the homeless community regarding procedures at The Bridge along with firsthand accounts of poor treatment or denial of access. The concern is how can the resistant individuals who gave up on The Bridge be persuaded to come back and try The Bridge again? When the rules stop changing daily and consistency is recognized the word will spread. It will take time, but many of them will hopefully come back and give The Bridge another chance.

In the meantime, the City of Dallas will keep spending additional tax dollars writing tickets or putting people in jail for trespassing when they have no means to pay a fine. What a waste of time and tax dollars and what perfect timing. Put hundreds back on the street denying them access to The Bridge and then start "quality of life" sweeps. This was not what taxpayers expected for Dallas after The Bridge opened but that is what they are getting. At the minimum, it is reasonable to expect that policy changes should help, rather than hinder, those that the system was designed to protect, often the most vulnerable in our society.

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