Voters in Dallas County, including Richardson residents who live on the Dallas County side of the city, will decide on Nov. 3 whether to raise county property taxes to pay for a countywide homelessness program with no end date.
Proposition A would raise roughly $100 million annually, according to county leaders and The Dallas Morning News. Richardson collects its property taxes through both Dallas and Collin counties, and owners get a bill from the county where their property sits, the city says, so only the Dallas County part of Richardson would see the levy. Early voting begins Oct. 19 and ends Oct. 30.
What it would cost
The measure adds 2.4 cents per $100 of assessed value on top of the higher rate commissioners already set for this year, the News reported. The Dallas Free Press put the proposed county rate at $0.24865 per $100, up from $0.2155 last year, or about $64 more on a $350,000 home. NBC 5 estimated about $60 a year for the average home.
What the money would pay for
Housing Forward, the nonprofit that leads the region's homeless response, drafted the plan. In the first year, according to its proposal as described by the News, about $68 million would go to up to 12 months of rent or job help, $8 million to longer-term housing and treatment, and roughly $4 million to quick costs such as travel to reunite people with family.
Another $20 million would set up service hubs in six zones across the county, folding in a 100-bed deflection center the county already plans, where officers could bring people to be stabilized rather than booked into jail.
At a rally in Dallas' West End on Wednesday, service providers and county and city leaders urged a yes vote. Housing Forward CEO Sarah Kahn told NBC 5 that only about 6 in 10 people across the county who need help leaving homelessness can get it now. County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins has argued the problem crosses city lines.
"Even if two or three cities really made it a priority, found the funding to make it a priority, it would just be dispersing homeless persons out to other surrounding cities in Dallas County," he told the News.