The Denton County Homeless Coalition presented its annual Point-in-Time Count, an annual census of all people experiencing homelessness on a given day of the year, and data reveal on homelessness last Wednesday, May 29. The 2024 State of Homelessness Address is meant to provide insight into the homeless population in Denton County. Local nonprofits were present to learn how to better serve the community of people without housing in Denton.
Cities included in Denton County recorded by the Housing Priority List to have unsheltered people are Carrollton, Denton, Frisco, Lewisville, Roanoke and The Colony.
United Way Denton, a local non-profit organization, spoke at the event and said the number of unhoused individuals recorded within Denton County rose to a total of 518 people in 2024, including children. A majority of the individuals take shelter in an outdoor encampment, according to the data address.
According to Olivia Williams, the Chief Programs Officer at United Way Denton County and Texas Woman’s University alum, the percentage of homeless individuals identifying as LGBTQ+ has risen from 26 individuals in 2023 to 42 individuals in 2024, a 62 percent increase. The number of families without housing has also risen by 93 percent this year, according to the Point-in-time Count .
Michelle Conner, Valley View resident and the CEO and founder of Giving Grace, a local nonprofit serving families or people who are experiencing homelessness, has always had a passion to serve families experiencing or on the verge of homelessness.
“I saw a lot of need and a lot of barriers, and we just wanted to come inside and wrap around [the homeless population of Denton County] together as a community,” Connor said.
Giving Grace educates the public on the population of homeless people within Denton County as well as provides assistance to those in need. Giving Grace is the result of the combination of two originally separate organizations, Giving Hope and Grace Like Rain. The two merged in 2022 to form the new nonprofit. Both organizations were founded on the same basis of assisting the unhoused population in North Texas.
“I heavily support the collective impact approach […] and the collaboration and how everyone brings their strength to the table of what their organization or entity does,” Williams said. “I love seeing the outcome of the changed systems and all of that behind the scenes effort.”
Another nonprofit organization present at the event was United Way Denton County. Their work aims to help families and children succeed, to assist and guide veterans, to advocate for overall mental health and to make homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring,” Williams said.
Colorful, custom buttons with impactful quotes scribbled onto them were sold for $3 a button or two for $5. Williams said the buttons were handcrafted and created by the United Way Denton County.
Williams said that the buttons are not just for revenue. The words drawn on each button have an impactful message that will catch the attention of any passerby on the street.
According to Williams, United Way Denton understands the homeless community doesn’t live in a bubble and how housing and homelessness is connected to workforce and behavioral health.
“There isn’t enough places for homeless people to go and recover once leaving the hospital,” Williams said.
Williams said that leaves a significant gap. Shelters in Denton County have also been reporting an overlapping concern of mental health rising.
Dani Shaw, Carrollton resident and director of community services for Denton, said she is currently working on ways for volunteers to respond to homelessness emergencies with more efficiency.
“We need to have all of the resources to get those people housed, which we don’t have currently,” Shaw said.
Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, a professor of political science at the university and published author, said based on what he’s seen around Denton, there’s a lot more homeless people on the streets than in prior years.
“Due to higher rent, limited housing and limited resources. That’s [...] my general sense on why the number has increased,” Eshbaugh-Soha said. “The population increases and then there’s the significant rise, such as in 2022.”
In 2022, the Point-in-Time Count’s census included 261 sheltered people, 187 unsheltered people and 53 additionally observed peoples. There was a 74 percent increase in people surveyed from 2020 to 2022, according to the 2022 Denton County Homelessness Data Report.
Williams believes the COVID-19 pandemic is a cause to the rise in homelessness. Many jobs were lost during the pandemic in 2020, which is a possible reason for families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
