(Texas Scorecard) – Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced a new program to create a city-sponsored homeless encampment in response to a citizen’s concern about the homeless population moving into neighborhoods they previously did not occupy.
“The homeless will be pushed to another location. So very soon, we’re going to have a city-sponsored encampment that will be rolled out,” said Whitmire.
The admission came during a conversation about the expansion of the city’s civility ordinance into Magnolia Park. The civility ordinance prohibits people from sitting, sleeping, or laying their possessions on sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. It has been expanded over the years into additional neighborhoods as resident complaints have arisen, but the mayor said all it does is move homeless people to another part of town and he’s looking for a permanent solution.
“The homeless in public space is just not going to be acceptable. We hear the same message across Houston. Obviously, it’s a complex issue, mental health,” he said, adding that “the only way I know how to attack a problem is certainly acknowledge we have one.”
While details on the city-sponsored encampment haven’t been made public, Whitmire said, “I’ll use my office in collaboration with council, but really every level of government, there’s no reason in the world the county should not join us in enforcement and some relocation.”
Whitmire told one Houston news outlet that “the homeless encampment is going to be a safe residential facility. Maybe a tent. We’re working on it.”
He also said he was in contact with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to make sure that those released from TDCJ facilities go back to where they were initially arrested rather than stopping and staying in Houston. The Houston Greyhound bus station has long been the first, and sometimes final, stop for inmates paroled from the Huntsville Unit.
National media has credited Houston and Harris County for reducing their homeless population, often citing a 63 percent reduction since 2012, but residents have consistently complained about growing homeless populations in their neighborhoods.
Whitmire said additional details will be made public soon and will involve the Housing and Homeland Security Departments.