Downtown & citywide
Dallas Community Resources
Three places to start when you need a city service, a referral, or public health help, and what each one says it actually covers.
Dallas 311: non-emergency city services
Dallas 311 is described by the City of Dallas as its customer service line for non-emergency issues, connecting residents to the city department that handles concerns such as potholes, missed trash or recycling pickup, code violations, and stray animals. City communications describe the line as covering more than 400 service request types and fielding over 930,000 non-emergency calls a year. It is reachable by phone at 311 or 214-670-3111, through a mobile app, or with an online request form, and the city describes it as available around the clock.
2-1-1 Texas: a free referral line for food, housing, and utility help
2-1-1 North Texas operates the Dallas-Fort Worth branch of 2-1-1 Texas, a free, statewide, 24-hour information and referral service. It is run through a partnership between the North Texas Area United Way and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The service connects callers to community resources such as food pantries, emergency housing, rent and utility assistance, childcare, and senior services, drawing on more than 60,000 state and local health and human services programs. It can be reached by dialing 2-1-1 or online.
Dallas County Health and Human Services
DCHHSdescribes its mission as optimizing and protecting the health and well-being of all Dallas County residents. It presents itself as a nationally accredited public health department providing health and social services, spanning clinical care, human services, communicable disease management, and public health laboratory functions. DCHHS states it offers free or low-cost public health and social services, and says it has responded to major public health emergencies in the county including Mpox, COVID-19, Ebola, H1N1, West Nile virus, and Zika virus.
Phone numbers, hours, and exactly which services are available can change. Confirm current details on each organization's own site before calling or visiting.
Looking for a specific organization
If you're trying to confirm whether a specific nonprofit is legitimate, seeDallas Nonprofit Organizations for how to look one up directly through federal and public filings.