Texas lawmakers examine the state’s fragmented response to homelessness
July 13, 2026 – The Meadows Institute is featured in a story by Texas Public Radio on the Texas Legislature’s efforts to address homelessness in the upcoming legislative session. The article includes the invited testimony…
July 13, 2026 – The Meadows Institute is featured in a story by Texas Public Radio on the Texas Legislature’s efforts to address homelessness in the upcoming legislative session.
The article includes the invited testimony that Executive Vice President for Health and Public Safety B.J. Wagner provided on June 24 before the House Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs. B.J. provided an overview of the money that local governments spend on unmet behavioral health needs and discussed alternative crisis response solutions such as the Behavioral Health Emergency Response Initiative (BHERi) and Multidisciplinary Response Teams (MDRTs).
Without that coordination, B.J. said, people experiencing a mental health crisis often receive “the wrong resource, the wrong response, and often the wrong outcome.”
