Housing Forward

Housing Forward is the backbone organisation leading the homeless response system for Dallas and Collin counties, Texas. Working through the All Neighbors Coalition, it coordinates more than 150 public, private and nonprofit partners with the stated aim of making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring. The organisation reports more than 25,000 exits from homelessness and five consecutive years of reductions since 2021.

The work is substantially data-driven. Housing Forward's technical domains include data-driven system coordination, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), coordinated access systems and data analytics applied to homelessness outcomes. It administers several components of the regional response system: the Coordinated Access System (CAS), which coordinates access to services; HMIS, which manages and tracks homelessness data across the system; and the Flex Fund, a rental assistance programme that helps people obtain or retain housing.

Two further initiatives sit alongside these programmes. Street to Home moves people directly from the streets into shelter, treatment, recovery and stable housing, while the R.E.A.L. Time Rehousing Initiative focuses on rapid, real-time rehousing within the coordinated response strategy. Housing Forward operates in Dallas, Dallas County and Collin County, and works across homeless services, housing and homelessness response, nonprofit and social services, and public-sector partnerships.

The organisation describes itself as mission-driven, working to ensure no one is forced to sleep outside, and takes a collaborative, coalition-based approach across sectors. Founding year, team size and funding details are not publicly stated here.