DENTON, TX — A new report from the City Auditor’s Office shines a critical light on Denton’s efforts to respond to homelessness, revealing that while some programs are helping, significant inefficiencies and gaps remain.
The audit, completed in April 2025, analyzed city activities around encampment actions, street outreach, and emergency shelter operations. Findings point to a homelessness response system that is reactive, fragmented, and often not aligned with best practices.
Encampment Response: Reactive and Uncoordinated
The audit found that Denton’s encampment response processes are largely reactive, triggered by resident complaints rather than a proactive or coordinated strategy. Notably, there is no centralized tracking system for encampments or clear guidelines for dealing with those on private property. While city guidelines exist for public property encampments, they are inconsistently followed, and documentation is lacking.
This reactive approach is compounded by the fact that belongings of homeless individuals are often destroyed during cleanups, with no temporary storage options provided. Clean-up decisions are not consistently recorded, and notification procedures do not always ensure residents have adequate time or language-appropriate notices.
Mental Health Crisis Response: Underdeveloped and Resource-Strained
Denton’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), designed to handle mental health crises, has also been flagged for inefficiency. Although CIRT employs licensed clinicians paired with police officers, their operations are not well-defined, and outcomes are poorly tracked.
Alarmingly, most mental health-related calls are still handled by regular law enforcement without clinician involvement. Only about 16% of such calls are handled solely by CIRT, undermining efforts to divert individuals from the criminal justice system and toward mental health services.
Street Outreach: Progress and Pitfalls
The City contracts with a nonprofit to provide street outreach services, and while the contractor generally meets housing placement goals, coordination between various outreach teams is lacking. The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), composed mostly of police officers, struggles to connect individuals to housing due to limited access to housing resources and conflicting law enforcement duties.
The audit notes that many street outreach efforts occur without centralized data sharing, meaning different providers might unknowingly duplicate efforts or miss opportunities to assist individuals effectively. Federal funding that has helped support housing solutions is also set to expire soon, creating a looming concern for the continuity of these programs.
Emergency Shelter Operations: Out of Step with Best Practices
The Denton Community Shelter, operated under contract with the City, was intended to follow “housing-first” and “low-barrier” models, meaning minimal entry requirements and a primary focus on quickly securing stable housing for guests. However, auditors found that the shelter’s operations do not consistently meet these standards.
Shelter rules are extensive and punitive, with many guests expelled for infractions that do not necessarily relate to safety concerns. The shelter uses a lottery system for bed assignment, meaning even vulnerable individuals may be turned away. Moreover, case management is limited, with only about a third of guests receiving consistent support to help them move into permanent housing.
Nearly 88% of emergency shelter guests end up exiting back into homelessness, a figure that starkly contrasts with the intended goals of shelter services.
Recommendations and Next Steps
The audit outlines a series of 19 recommendations, calling for:
- Centralized and strategic management of encampments
- Better diversion of mental health calls to clinical teams rather than law enforcement
- Improved coordination between outreach programs
- A realignment of shelter practices to focus on permanent housing outcomes
Community Services and Police Department officials indicated they would work toward many of the recommendations, pending City Council direction.
Denton Residents Demand Action
According to the City’s 2024 Community Survey, nearly nine out of ten Denton residents view homelessness as a major or moderate concern. Over half consider emergency shelter during harsh weather and mental health program funding as essential community needs.
The City’s growing homeless population — which has nearly doubled in recent years — alongside the public’s call for effective action, places pressure on local officials to build a more humane and results-driven homelessness response.
The full Audit of Homelessness Response report is available through the City Auditor’s Office for residents wishing to dive deeper into the findings.
