Denton’s involvement and direct response to the rise in homelessness are not sufficient. The city’s reliance on public-private partnerships has led to Denton failing people without housing.
Denton has seen a 33 percent rise in homelessness in the past year alone, and yet this has not sparked a notable change from local officials. Instead, the city’s website highlights initiatives and strategies implemented in 2016. Clearly, these strategies have not worked.
In 2020, Denton purchased a property off Loop 288 that became the city’s homeless shelter. Instead of running it directly, Denton handed operations over to Our Daily Bread. Our Daily Bread is a nonprofit organization that runs Denton’s primary homeless shelter.
Denton provided the building that Our Daily Bread occupies, but only provides occasional funding. Under this public-private partnership with Our Daily Bread, Denton leaves the nonprofit to shoulder nearly all financial responsibility, mostly through donations.
Earlier this year, these struggles became more apparent as Our Daily Bread failed an internal audit, followed by a lawsuit against the shelter for negligence and lack of accommodations. City officials have placed the blame entirely on Our Daily Bread by filing a plea that claims independence from the shelter.
Even after the legal flak they have come under, the organization’s response was even worse than the city shirking responsibility. Our Daily Bread, which was supposed to have a viable emergency shelter option along with offering 24/7 services, dropped both commitments, stating they want to “do better with what we have,” according to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Our Daily Bread has been the main leg of Denton’s homelessness response, and even this was inadequate in getting the majority of people without housing sheltered, with 235 unhoused individuals reported in 2024, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle. The minimal amount of support the city provides the nonprofit is not enough when the number of people experiencing homelessness keeps increasing.
Our Daily Bread is a failure due to a lack of oversight and financial support from Denton, which allowed the shelter to become overcrowded and deprived it of the resources needed to thrive.
In addition to the lack of support for shelters, Denton also allocated funding to the Downtown Denton Ambassador Program. The program is another private corporation for public services intended to provide hospitality services to the city and, in extension, aid the homeless population. Helping the city’s homeless community, however, is not the main objective of the program.
The Downtown Denton Ambassador Program is a two-year pilot program funded by Denton at approximately $708,300 annually, totaling just over $1.4 million since its inception. However, there is concern for what actionable changes Denton residents, particularly those seeking to support people without housing, are seeing from the program. The answer is very little, especially when compared to the money that is being dedicated to the program, while Denton’s city spending budget is facing a deficit entering 2026.
The program’s main mission, according to its website, is to “help build and maintain a clean, safe, and thriving downtown.” This program maintains the Denton Square by keeping it clean, as well as providing services to people in the Square. This includes addressing people without housing who use the area for shelter and redirecting them via referral to Our Daily Bread or another shelter.
However, many Denton residents believe the number of people experiencing homelessness is still a problem since the referrals given are neither tracked nor followed up with.
The program has achieved success in its mission to maintain litter cleanliness in Denton’s Downtown Square and assists shop owners with their safety walks. The resources they are tasked with providing to homeless people, such as referrals, do not help them in any substantial way since they require more than just a referral to ensure that individuals receive shelter. Often, service resources are allocated to the same homeless individuals, leading to a cycle of repeated service without meaningful support.
The city needs to take more accountability to create an actionable response, including better funding and providing the necessary resources for people without housing.
A shelter with 24/7 services is essential for addressing homelessness. Denton could have provided this and overseen the operations directly and easily. The city should invest more consistently in the shelters, given its higher funding compared to Our Daily Bread, and therefore take greater accountability.
More support from the city could alleviate both staffing and general funding issues. On top of that, shelters would have more direct integration with city resources, which allows for more efficient initiatives.
The City Council recommended $291,107 of hotel occupancy tax funding be reallocated to the Downtown Denton Ambassador Program on Aug. 9. This funding, which, according to an article by the Denton Record-Chronicle, would be used for a “scaled back version” of the program and could take away funding from certain community programs like the Denton Community Market.
Instead of continuing the city’s trend of deferring responsibility for helping people without housing by assigning another public-private partnership, Denton needs to take direct ownership in aiding people without housing.
Denton’s scattered response to the increase in the city’s homeless population is causing significant harm to the community. Denton leadership needs to step in and create actionable, researched and expansive initiatives to improve the city’s current situation, rather than dodging accountability through public-private partnerships.
