The Denton Community Shelter will no longer be a 24/7 overnight emergency shelter for the rising homeless population in Denton County, except during inclement weather events, the shelter’s operator announced last week.
Instead, Our Daily Bread, Together with Monsignor King Outreach Center said in a news release Wednesday that the shelter will shift services Sept. 1 to a housing-focused model for 120 guests at a time. The nonprofit, which operates the city’s shelter, will double the capacity of its transitional housing program while eliminating the overnight shelter program and lottery-based bed assignments for people in need.
Now, the shelter will be open to people who are not in the transitional program only from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. They’ll have access to lunch, dinner and snacks, and services including showers and hygiene items, mail, lockers, phone and computer access, prescription vouchers, and partner networks’ services and referrals.
But the Denton Community Shelter is eliminating breakfast, ID procurement, transportation vouchers, laundry and case management for day shelter guests.
The day shelter changes go into effect Aug. 1.
Our Daily Bread will host a virtual town hall at 6 p.m. July 23 to discuss the changes and answer questions.
“Our Daily Bread has been operating beyond its staffing and programmatic capacity, doing everything possible to meet overwhelming demand,” the shelter staff wrote in the release. “... By narrowing the overnight shelter program to guests actively working toward housing, we can ensure that every individual receives the depth of support they need. This is a step forward that allows Our Daily Bread to operate effectively and prioritize long-term success.”
In January, the annual point-in-time count tallied 690 people experiencing homelessness in Denton County, up 33% from 2024, when 518 people were counted.
It’s unclear what will happen to people who aren’t able to access overnight shelter since camping in undesignated public areas is illegal in Texas.
In last week’s news release, Our Daily Bread said it helped move 136 people from homelessness to stable independent living last year and expects that number to double with the new changes.
The changes follow a city audit earlier this year that found a litany of problems with Denton’s homelessness response, including that 88% of those who seek emergency shelter exit back into homelessness.
On Monday, Jenna Edwards, development director at Our Daily Bread, said the changes align with the broader discussions from a Denton City Council meeting in April.
In April, the council approved limiting capacity at the shelter, in part due to other cities around Denton County and other counties dropping off people at the shelter without offering resources or financial support to the Denton shelter.
Wendy McGee, the executive director of Our Daily Bread, said in April that they do not have the capacity or the resources to case-manage or assist the 1,800 people they served last year.
In an email Monday, Edwards said that currently five case managers are sharing a caseload of up to 56 people that includes those in aftercare and the transitional housing wing, while also managing all intakes and service requests as well as other shelter duties.
Under the new model, case managers will focus only on direct support for up to 20 guests. Our Daily Bread is also restructuring the case management team so that two case managers will specialize in support for mental health and substance use disorder.
“This will enable more personalized care, helping guests stabilize and transition successfully to independent living,” Edwards wrote.
Edwards indicated that their plan is to pare down capacity and “get as many guests as possible stabilized before September 1.”
In April, Our Daily Bread got 30 guests into housing, Edwards wrote, calling it “more than we ever have in a single month.”
Our Daily Bread has been preparing for the changes for most of the year, including removing 16 spots from the emergency shelter capacity in early June to get it down to 120 beds — the original number, Edwards said, agreed upon by the nonprofit and the city of Denton, which owns the Denton Community Shelter.
“We have not seen a significant increase in the number of guests we are turning away each night as a result of the removal of cots,” Edwards wrote.
Edwards also shared a quote from McGee, who said that the new changes “are not about doing less — they’re about doing better with what we have.”
“By focusing more intentionally on housing and long-term stability, we’ll be able to help more people move beyond homelessness and into lasting change,” McGee wrote. “At the same time, our doors will remain open during the day to all who need meals, basic services, or shelter from the elements — continuing the legacy we’ve upheld for 25 years as a place of refuge for the hungry and homeless.”