Every night there are about 4,400 people living on the streets of Dallas. Chronic homelessness (when an individual is homelessness [sic] for more than a year) is up an enormous 92% since 2019 and specifically has become progressively worse over the summer. Many residents and business owners are justifiably upset about this ever-worsening problem in our city.
Earlier this month, a business owner claimed that when she entered her Koreatown restaurant’s kitchen, she found a homeless man using the grill to cook spam. She offered the man money, but he refused to leave. Against the backdrop of increased reports of violence from vagrants, the scene quickly caused her customers to leave out of discomfort and fear. Eventually the man took some of her mail and left. The police arrived hours after her initial call for help.
Insanely enough, the man returned and this time she opted not even to bother with seeking help from the police. Furthermore, other business owners in her neighborhood had suffered similar harassment by this man and received the same unconcerned response from our city police.
Charles Park, a longtime community activist in the area remarked on the self-fulfilling prophecy of unchecked squalor homeless encampments bring to our city, stating “The human mind is this: If there’s some area with a pile of trash, then you can spit there.”
Essentially as an area becomes worse and is given over more and more to homelessness and vagrancy, public safety and lawlessness is sure to follow. Park stated that it is the city’s responsibility to address the vagrant population that resides under I-35, and it is their duty to clean up the roadways. He also pointed out that panhandling in the area has become a significant problem, and residents in the area want to see a serious effort to combat it from the city.
Mr. Park is right of course. It is the City of Dallas’ responsibility and obligation to address the growing problem of homelessness and vagrancy, and every day that our city leaders do not act, the issue becomes exponentially worse.
Furthermore, residents and business owners need to speak out and advocate for a real solution, just as Keep Dallas Safe has been doing for months. Our city leaders need to know that we support action and policy that will clean up encampments and provide sustainable solutions for those living on our streets.
And further, the city must not back down in the face of resistance. For example, in late July, forty armed activists delayed the clearing of an encampment in South Dallas under I-45. The group behind the move to block clearing of the encampment claim that they are “promoting and assisting marginalized communities in organizing community defense against white supremacists/fascism.” I guess they didn’t get the memo that the majority of homeless people are white. But yes, white supremacy. Okay.
These homeless people need actual help—and not from armed goons set on keeping them on the streets—and so do the communities in which they are residing. Living on the streets is a serious health concern, especially on these hot summer days, and Dallas will continue to decline in both in public safety and financial prosperity if we do not clean up our city.
Contact your city council representative and tell them to stand bold against increasing crime and vagrancy. Dallas can either return to the business-friendly economic powerhouse it once was or let itself fall into a pit of criminality and homelessness like cities such as Los Angeles or Portland. It’s more important now than ever to demand that our city leaders clean up the streets.