A North Texas couple in The Cedars was shocked when their security camera showed a man bathing at their outdoor spigot. At first, the family allowed him to finish his routine on a sweltering August afternoon. But when he returned several days later — this time exposing himself within sight of neighborhood children — their concern turned to safety.
The man has not been identified and faces no criminal charges.
A Glimpse Into Survival
CBS Texas, which first reported the story, separately interviewed 53-year-old Kelvin Simpson, a Dallas man who has been homeless for two years. Simpson was not the man in the couple’s video but described the survival strategies many rely on — baby wipes, sprinklers, fountains, or spigots.
“You have to find some water somewhere,” he said. “Mostly, I use baby wipes or hand sanitizers to clean myself up.” Still, he admitted, “That’s not right. It’s not fair… they still got to pay the water bill, and you never ask them.”
Compassion Meets Boundaries
The couple said they wrestled with how to respond. “If this poor man, he’s trying to maintain his health, stay clean… my heart hurts for people like that,” the wife said. During the second encounter, the couple said the man exposed himself in view of neighborhood children — prompting the husband to step in and ask him to leave.
The husband said he approached the man respectfully, telling him: “I understand your circumstances. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but we have children in and around this neighborhood… appreciate it if you refrain from doing this here.”
According to the wife, the man did not push back but instead apologized and left — parting with a chilling statement: “The devil is going to get you.”
A Familiar Dallas Divide
The dilemma mirrors broader concerns Dallas residents have raised about homelessness. As The Dallas Express previously reported, uncoordinated street feedings in downtown Dallas have created what leaders describe as chaos.
“Folks like The Bridge, Downtown Dallas Inc., and the Sanitation Department from the City of Dallas have to come and clean up all the trash,” said David Woody, president of The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center. “The whole neighborhood is upset about it.”
Pastor Earl Fitzsimmons of Bring The Light Ministries called the Saturday feeding scene near S. Ervay Street a “chaotic mess.” While he said feeding the poor is a biblical calling, he warned against “hit-and-run” charity that leaves disorder in its wake.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn has also criticized City Hall’s claims of progress, pointing to a 45% increase in 311 complaints related to homeless activity over three years. “The residents are so fed up, and they are fed up of hearing homelessness is decreasing when they see it every single day,” she said.
City Strategy Under Fire
A June audit of the Office of Homeless Solutions found the City fails to track whether people actually exit homelessness, lacks oversight of contractors, and does not coordinate effectively with Housing Forward. The City spends $18 million annually on homelessness programs but has no reliable way of measuring success.
Meanwhile, the feeding ordinance requiring advance notice has not resulted in any citations this year, despite dozens of events every weekend.
The Bottom Line
The Cedars spigot incident may seem like a neighborhood oddity, but it highlights the deeper failures of Dallas’ homelessness strategy: residents left to deal with unsettling encounters, charities operating without structure, and millions of taxpayer dollars spent without clear results.
As Woody told DX, “We all want something better.” Until the City enforces its own rules and ties compassion to real recovery, residents will keep facing situations that blur the line between kindness and chaos — and sometimes end with warnings like, “The devil is going to get you.”