Rest in Peace, Cindy Honey

Today, after a long and courageous fight, the mortal coil unwound and the life and bright spirit of Cindy Honey was at last released from this world.

She leaves behind family and friends, lives forever changed by her warm presence and often boisterous laughter. She also leaves a community that is far different than the one that she found when she first accepted the position of Executive Director of the newly formed Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance

Under Cindy's leadership...

• The local Continuum of Care turned around years of under-performance and ultimately became one of the nation's top performers, enabling Dallas to qualify for the Samaritan Bonus fund.
  
• CDM was able to secure some of the first permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless persons in North Texas,
  
• CDM leveraged this, and countless other contributions from Cindy and her team, to acquire and re-develop CityWalkAtAkard
  
• And much, much more.

Thank you for your dedication to our homeless neighbors, Cindy. Your heart's strong beat continues to drives us onward, and we ask only that your spirit continue to guide our work.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

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More on the new HAC

Thanks to PegasusNews.com's Catherine Cuellar and Scott Guthrie for posting the first story from the actual event cited below: Dallas celebrates opening of long-awaited homeless assistance center


I had the fortunate opportunity to stand next to Scott during the event and speak to him briefly about my perspective on the affair. I am grateful for his honest approach to the event -- pointing out both its highs and its lows. Kudos for his bravery.

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The Opening of "the Bridge"

Congratulations to the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance for today's wonderful announcement: the grand opening of The Bridge, Dallas' homeless assistance center. The event drew hundreds of neighbors together to celebrate this wonderful step forward.

But let us remember: this is a mighty step forward, but we have not reached the end of our journey to end chronic homelessness. The road ahead is long, and we must walk it hand-in-hand with our neighbors... those who are homeless and otherwise.

I was greatly encouraged by the editors of The Dallas Morning News, who made a similar statement in their editorial this morning: Editorial: A step toward ending homelessness.

Ending homelessness in Dallas is a marathon event, not a 100-yard dash. Today's opening of The Bridge homeless center in downtown marks an innovative change in the way this city confronts the homeless problem. But it's important to remember that this is still just an initial step in a long and arduous slog.

Thanks also to one of The Dallas Morning News' finest reporters, Kim Horner, for prefacing the event with this piece: $21 million downtown Dallas facility will focus on chronically homeless

The Associated Press also covered it here: New homeless center opens in Dallas

It was also good to see Our Girl Friday, Catherine Cuellar, at the event for Pegasus News, which covered the event here: The Bridge, Dallas' new homeless assistance shelter, opens Tuesday. PegNews is a gracious host of Larry James' Urban Daily. In fact, one of his recent blogs that they cross-posted was "The Business Case for Ending Homelessness".

Again, congratulations to the MDHA for this momentous event.

And congratulations to Judy Noble, wife of my dear friend and college mentor Peter Noble, for launching the MDHA's new Web site:

http://www.MDHADallas.org/

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