Area groups aim to aid the unsheltered From the cover
The approach
The setup
The McKinney Homeless Coalition evolved from the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, a group established in 2019 to enable collaboration and information sharing between organizations serving local homeless individuals, Assistant City Manager Kim Flom said. The group considered ways to create a brick- and-mortar service center for people experiencing homelessness, Flom said. The initiative was halted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “There [was] city support to do something that continues to facilitate and improve our services to our unhoused population; we just weren’t sure how to do it,” Flom said. The coalition later sparked the creation of the Have a Heart, Give Smart program, an anti-pan- handling campaign. The city also offers a number of assistance programs that help prevent someone from losing housing, including rental assistance as well as property rehabilitation programs. In addition to the programs offered by the city,
City homelessness fund City officials have allocated some dollars from the fund balance to be used for flex funds, which can be used to prevent evictions.
The total number of homeless individuals has continued to rise in the McKinney area over the past four years. That is despite a roughly 18% decrease in the number of people dealing with homelessness in Collin and Dallas counties during that same time period, according to data from Housing Forward, the lead agency in addressing homelessness in Dallas and Collin counties. The 2024 point-in-time count, a federally mandated census of the homeless population, identified 239 people experiencing homelessness in McKinney. The count is conducted annually by volunteers on a single night in January, and the data is used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development when making decisions regarding funding for homelessness services. Paul Ballesteros, founder of Emmanuel Labor, said the count is not representative of the actual amount of people dealing with homelessness in McKinney.
Remaining budget: $135,000 Transit: $20,000 Flex fund: $20,000
14.8%
14.8%
70.4%
SOURCE: CITY OF MCKINNEY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
the McKinney Police Department’s seven-person Community Services Unit works to serve homeless people as well as those experiencing mental health challenges, Police Chief Joe Ellenburg said. The Community Services Unit is actively working with about 200 homeless individuals, Ellenburg said.
McKinney
Did you know?
+11.16%
250 200 150 100 50 0
McKinney ISD can connect families to resources inside and outside of school, including school sup- plies, health services and nutrition, said Jennifer Akins, McKinney ISD’s chief school improvement and federal programs officer. The growing costs for living expenses has created challenges for families, Akins said. “Our goal is to remove barriers created by the homelessness so that our students can continue their education,” she said in an email.
Percent of student population that is homeless
2.89%
2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2023-24 2022-23
2.27% 2.34% 2.3%
2022 2023
2024
2021
2.68%
Number of homeless students 0 200 400 600 800
SOURCE: CITY OF MCKINNEY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCES: MCKINNEY ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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