A safe place to rebuild
SOLACE stands for Supportive Opportunities for Living, Assistance, Community & Empowerment. We exist to help veterans and people in need find a stable home — and the support to move forward from it.
Housing more veterans and people in need
We help people in transition — homeless veterans, survivors of domestic violence, returning citizens, families in crisis, and others facing housing instability — find the assistance they already qualify for, and a home built to receive it.
Our homes are ordinary houses in real neighborhoods, each dedicated to one group of residents, with structured community, case management, and a clear path toward permanent housing.
Our three commitments
- Access. Match every person to the programs they qualify for, and to a bed that meets those programs’ requirements.
- Community. Psychologist-guided shared housing, with residents governing their own house alongside case management and job-training referrals.
- Lasting homes. Once open, a home is sustained by the programs that serve its residents — so it can keep welcoming people for years.
A matching problem, not a scarcity problem
Housing assistance from federal, state, and local programs goes unclaimed or underused every year — not because the need is absent, but because the system is fragmented. A veteran eligible for a VA Grant and Per Diem bed rarely knows the benefit exists. A domestic violence survivor entitled to housing protections has to navigate them alone. And the people with rooms available have no practical way to set up those rooms for the programs that would support residents.
SOLACE connects the two sides. We identify what assistance a person qualifies for, guide them through the application, and place them in a home that meets the requirements of that specific program. Our goal is to remove the three reasons eligible people go unhelped: they didn’t know the program existed, didn’t understand how to apply, or gave up partway through.
The principles behind every home
Psychological safety
Every resident has the right to feel safe at home. No intimidation, harassment, or threatening behavior is tolerated, regardless of intent.
Mutual accountability
Residents hold each other to shared standards and address concerns directly and respectfully before escalating to staff.
Trauma-informed norms
Rules are explained in terms of why they support healing and reintegration — not just compliance.
Restorative over punitive
Conflicts are addressed through structured conversation and restorative practice first. Zero-tolerance rules remain absolute.
Community ownership
Residents have a voice in who joins and who remains — building buy-in, shared investment, and belonging.
Open to all faiths
We serve residents regardless of faith, in keeping with the Fair Housing Act. Any religious programming in a SOLACE home is resident-initiated and voluntary.
Why Dallas–Fort Worth
Dallas–Fort Worth is SOLACE’s home. Our founding team is based here, and the region is the right place to begin:
- One of the largest veteran populations in the United States, with a VA Medical Center in Dallas and a VA Outpatient Clinic in Fort Worth.
- An established Continuum of Care, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, that coordinates homeless services.
- A strong network of faith-based organizations, businesses, and community foundations.
Our first home
A distressed brick house in a Dallas neighborhood, renovated for safety and furnished with donated beds, dressers, lamps, and linens — six residents, two to a room, with a shared kitchen and a backyard.
It will serve one population, matched to whichever housing program opens first.
Help open it →One door at a time
SOLACE is in its founding stage. We are not open to residents yet. Here is the path we are working toward, with each step building on the last:
- 2026 — FoundationForming our board, joining the local Continuum of Care, starting our community campaign, and finding our first house.
- 2027 — The first home opensSix people welcomed home in Dallas, targeted for spring 2027.
- 2028 — Four homesMore people welcomed home across Dallas–Fort Worth.
- 2029 — Sixteen homes, 96 bedsA growing network, reaching new cities.
- Beyond — A network where help finds peopleWhere a resident’s assistance moves with them, so a new job in a new city never means starting over.
Founded in Dallas
SOLACE was founded by Michael Palhidai and is guided by a team of advisors and consultants with experience in real estate, construction, social work, nursing, psychology, and finance.
We plan to form a Board of Directors that includes representatives from the veteran services community and domestic violence advocacy, a social worker or licensed counselor, and a person with lived experience of homelessness or incarceration.
— Michael Palhidai, Founder“Everyone deserves a safe place to rebuild.”
A note on our status
We plan to establish the SOLACE Community Foundation as a separately governed 501(c)(3) charitable arm, with its application planned for 2027. Until it is approved, gifts to SOLACE are acts of generosity and are not tax-deductible. We will update this page when that changes.