Thursday, August 21, 2025
Good afternoon:
As we highlighted just last month, we have made incredible progress in Downtown over the past year with the Street-to-Home initiative, successfully rehousing more than 250 people who were living on our streets and sidewalks.
Large encampments with tents and other structures are no longer permitted and we are working with our City of Dallas partners to enforce quality of life laws, including those against sleeping in public. We are also continuing to direct people towards a pathway out of homelessness by discouraging behaviors that create more street sleeping, like unauthorized street feedings.
While community compassion is essential, uncoordinated street feeding events often undermine efforts to connect people with housing, healthcare, and long-term support. That’s why Safe in the City is working alongside partners to expand Street to Home, strengthen our ability to rehouse from shelters, and provide clear guidelines that ensure help is delivered in ways that improve safety and dignity for everyone.
Two recent pieces in The Dallas Morning News highlight the challenges we continue to face from mostly non-Dallas groups converging on our neighborhood streets and hosting feedings.
Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), President and CEO Jennifer Scripps writes, “These feedings come with serious public health and quality-of-life costs, many of which fall on the nonprofit I lead, DDI. Members of our Clean Team are routinely diverted from other duties to clean up waste and debris left behind by the feedings. That work is likely to cost our organization — funded primarily by downtown property owners — more than $100,000 this year alone.”
Separately, The Dallas Morning News editorial board says, “Large-scale prepared food distribution to the homeless is a serious problem in downtown Dallas. And those churches and other organizations that do it are too often unmindful of the negative impact they have not only on the residents and business of this growing neighborhood, but also on the work of professional social service agencies providing long-term assistance to people on the street.”
We hope those groups that are street feeding will heed our calls to instead contribute their time and efforts to established shelters and service providers, including The Bridge, OurCalling, and Austin Street Center.
The Safe in the City initiative is a collaboration of dozens of public and private groups and individuals. It is led by Downtown Dallas, Inc. (DDI), the City of Dallas, Housing Forward, the Dallas Citizens Council, and the Dallas Regional Chamber.
Downtown Crime Report
Crime in Downtown Dallas continued to fall through the first seven months of 2025, as compared to the same time period last year, according to the above Dallas Police Department data. Overall, crime is down by 23%, including a 48% drop in non-family violence aggravated assaults, a 59% decline in residential burglaries, and a 42% decline in stolen vehicles.
Quality of Life Violations
DDI’s field operations teams respond seven days a week to non-emergency quality of life violations. The above charts include some of the top Downtown violations for this year tracked by DDI. We are reporting a decrease across the board for some of our most common offenses, including sleeping in public, smoking in our parks, and vandalism/graffiti/litter.
These types of non-emergency quality of life concerns in Downtown can be reported to DDI via our See Say app.
Our public-private coalition includes hundreds of men and women in law enforcement and private security. Every month, we’re profiling a person or organization working with us to keep everyone safe in Downtown Dallas.
This month’s feature introduces you to a veteran Dallas police officer who is one of the leaders in making Downtown safer.
Name: Sgt. Kelly Kaltenbacher
Position: Dallas Police Department Central Business District Task Force Supervisor
Bio: Originally from the Baltimore, MD, area, Sgt. Kaltenbacher moved to Dallas in 2013 to pursue her dream of becoming a police officer. Since joining the Dallas Police Department, she has dedicated the past 12 years to serving the community, including nine years in patrol before transitioning into the Explorer Unit and later Community Affairs.
In November 2024, she stepped into her current role as the evening Downtown Task Force Supervisor, where she continues to lead with purpose, strengthen community relationships, and promote safety throughout Dallas.
What Safe in the City means to me: Safe in the City means being present and aware, not only of the beauty and energy this incredible city has to offer, but also of the people who call it home. It’s about staying mindful of ourselves and each other, looking out for our neighbors, and showing up for our community. Safety increases when we’re engaged, when we care, and when we work together—not just to protect Dallas, but to help it grow and change for the better.
Thank you for reading. Reach out to us if you need anything at [email protected].