Founded in 2002 to serve as a collective voice for homelessness in Dallas and Collin Counties, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) employs its expertise, partnerships, and resources to work alongside the Continuum of Care (CoC)—the collective of all Dallas and Collin county agencies—to end homelessness. After restructuring and hiring new leadership, MDHA selected us to perform a comprehensive brand audit, which included in-depth qualitative and quantitative research across multiple stakeholders, with the goal of strengthening brand strategy, visual identity, and messaging.

Our brand audit revealed confusion about the purpose and position of MDHA and the CoC, as well as communication gaps in how both organizations talked about themselves, not only to each other, but to the broader community as well. We developed a brand positioning strategy; new names, visual identity, and brand platform for each organization; and refocused messaging to highlight each organization’s strengths and their collaborative work to end homelessness.

MDHA introduced itself as Housing Forward in September 2022, alongside the All Neighbors Coalition, the new brand for the CoC. The new brand conveys a feeling of hope in solving homelessness while honoring the humanity of those experiencing it. The two entities share a visual identity, and their logos are built from the same elements—resembling building blocks or stepping stones—so there is no mistaking their relation to each other.

As Peter Brodsky, Housing Forward Board Chair, said when introducing the new brand, “Housing Forward represents the new, more effective, collaborative approach we hope to continue to foster in our community. Together, we can solve homelessness.”