DALLAS \u2014 Early voting is underway across the state. Along with the bevy of candidates Texans are voting on this week, more than four dozen ballot measures affecting nine counties are on the ballot.<\/p>\n
One of them is Dallas County, where, among other propositions, voters will decide if they want a property tax increase to fund programs to reduce homelessness and increase access to mental health treatment.<\/p>\n
On Sundays when church wraps up for Fidelia Amaefu, she\u2019s still serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI helped with the activities in church in terms of social media, and also, I mean, I\u2019m a very strong Christian believer,\u201d said Amaefu, a Dallas County resident. \u201cSo it\u2019s church first. Then, after church, I got into my car. I hit the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how she met a man who goes by the name of O.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlad to have met a fellow Nigerian that you know just asked me a random question to offer help to a complete stranger,\u201d said O.<\/p>\n
Amaefu\u2019s service doesn\u2019t just end inside these church walls. She\u2019s created the Beyond the Scars Foundation, which helps people from other countries who are experiencing homelessness in America to reconnect with their families and support systems overseas. And she does it through social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know I\u2019ve never thought about fear relating with people. Like, I always say that everybody deserves a second chance. Right? And until you\u2019re listening to someone\u2019s story, you\u2019ll be able to understand what brought em to how you\u2019re seeing them,\u201d Amaefu said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a story she can relate to. When she left her home country of Nigeria and moved to Dallas a few years ago, she said she nearly ended up on the streets.<\/p>\n
It’s a crisis that\u2019s not unique to North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in August, Close to Home released its 2026 State of Homelessness report, sharing how there was an increase of nearly 600 people asking for homelessness assistance from 2022 to 2025 in Bexar County.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also saw some concerning trends with people falling into homelessness for the first time,\u201d said Katie Wilson, CEO of Close to Home. \u201cSo we\u2019re continuing to see that we\u2019re making progress, for example, when it comes to our veterans. When it comes to people who have experienced chronic homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in North Texas, voters in Dallas County will decide if they want to join in the fight against homelessness as well. But it\u2019s going to come at a cost.<\/p>\n
Proposition A is asking voters to levy a tax of $248.65 per $100,000 of assessed property value to fund programs to reduce homelessness and increase access to mental health treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people are sympathetic to parks, schools, etc. But this is also a climate where a lot of people are feeling some economic insecurity, and most people already think their property taxes are too high,\u201d said Matthew Wilson, SMU political science professor.<\/p>\n
For Amaefu and her cause, she said that being able to get someone off the streets and reunited with family is priceless.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Early voting is underway across the state. Along with the bevy of candidates Texans are voting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[132,8455,1570,102,104,103,6288,138,409,223,287,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-479385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-austin","tag-blessing-iwuchukwu","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-decision-2026","tag-el-paso","tag-election","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}