Sheltering the homeless — indoors and out
Mayor’s plan includes supervised lodging under highway overpasses
There are roughly two dozen tents — even a few couches — beneath a portion of the U.S. 59 overpass that has become James Davis’ roof, at the edge of Midtown.
Davis, a 56-year-old originally from Arkansas, has been living in a homeless camp for three years, he said, having struggled to secure housing or other social services, like mental health care, after serving time.
“The system just don’t work for us, because we got numbers on our backs,” Davis said. “I pushed myself out, now I can’t get back in.”
Seeking to eliminate tent encampments and help people like Davis transition into housing, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Thursday what he called a “holistic” approach to reducing homelessness and panhandling that includes a pledge to house 500 chronically homeless people within the next six months and an ordinance banning tents on public property.
Turner also plans to construct alternative, professionally staffed “low-level shelters” under designated highway overpasses or on private property.
The rollout follows a steady stream of complaints from residents and City Council members in recent months, even as data shows Houston-area homelessness is at its lowest level in years.
“It is simply not acceptable for people to live on the streets. It is not
good for them, and it is not good for our city,” Turner said. “This is a complicated issue that we will tackle humanely with a meaningful approach that balances the needs of the homeless and the concerns of neighborhoods that they impact.”
The city initiative also features an anti-panhandling awareness campaign, a plan to encourage groups who feed the homeless to coordinate with the city, and an expansion of the city’s legislative agenda to include mental health and substance abuse treatment.
The mayor expects to bring ordinances to City Council this month that would ban tents and other structures on public property, and make it a Class C misdemeanor to obstruct city streets — an effort to curb panhandling.
Meanwhile, Turner said he is negotiating an agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to allow parking and other business ventures under freeway overpasses, where homeless people often congregate, and the nonprofit Star of Hope plans to add 215 shelter beds by August, with the help of $800,000 in city funding approved in January.
To accommodate those displaced by the city’s new rules, Turner intends to construct “lowlevel shelters” where people could sleep on mats in a fenced-in area with a roof. The plan was inspired by the outdoor sleeping space maintained by a San Antonio non-profit, Haven for Hope.
The mayor has not selected the sites for these shelters, saying he expects council members and their constituents to identify suitable locations.
“We don’t want to go to Midtown and tell folk ‘go’ without at least having another place where we can direct them to,” Turner said in a Wednesday meeting with the Chronicle’s editorial board. “I think it’s important for people who are saying ‘we don’t want them here’ to join in with us in helping to identify acceptable locations.”
Homeless population drops
Marc Eichenbaum, special assistant to the mayor for homeless initiatives, said the city does not yet have a cost estimate for its plan.
The city already faces a sizable budget deficit next year — though it has not released a specific estimate — and there is no evidence to suggest homelessness or panhandling is worsening in Houston.
In fact, the homeless population in Harris and Fort Bend counties fell 57 percent between 2011 and 2016 to roughly 3,600, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.
With less than 1 homeless person per 1,000 residents, the Houston area has the lowest homelessness rate of the nation’s 10 largest metro areas, according a city analysis of federal data.
“The data reveals that there aren’t more individuals on our streets, but, rather, the homeless that are there are now more concentrated and in more highly public, visible areas than before,” Eichenbaum said. “The more that homeless individuals are prohibited from being in certain areas, then that unintentionally can consolidate homeless individuals in groups.”
Asked how his homelessness plan would fit into the city’s budget, Turner pointed to federal disaster relief money and local affordable housing dollars as potential funding sources.
“I know we’ve got limited funds coming in,” he said. “We make do with what we have.”
Houston allocated nearly $20 million federal, state and local funds to address homelessness in 2015.
Some council members worried about homelessness and panhandling cheered the mayor’s response to their frustrations.
“The concerns that our neighborhoods have are real. The concerns that our drivers on our intersections (have) are real, particularly with the really aggressive window washers,” said Councilman Mike Laster, who represents District J in southwest Houston.
Neighborhood civic leaders were more circumspect, however, saying it likely will be difficult to find neighborhoods willing to volunteer sites for the proposed “low-level shelters.”
“When you think about a community that already feels like they’re heavily saturated, like us in 77009, then adding another 75 is not attractive,” said Diana Lerma Pfeifer, past president of the Lindale Park Civic Club, on the city’s Northside. “It would be difficult to consider it as an option.”
Residents have been vocal
Northside residents have been particularly vocal in calling for the mayor to address homelessness after an 11-year-old was stabbed to death last year, allegedly by homeless veteran.
“When you talk about putting in an encampment, you’re definitely going to get pushback,” said Tomaro Bell, chair of the Super Neighborhood Alliance’s health and public safety committee. “Council members honestly should look at their entire district and then talk to their constituency and sit down with them before they offer up any ideas or suggestions.”
Turner brushed off questions about residents’ potential unwillingness to welcome a “low-level shelter” to their neighborhood.
“This is a can-do city with a can-do spirit,” he said. “I think that if you make the ask, I think people will respond.”
Megan Hustings, interim director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, praised the city’s plan to increase its permanent supportive housing and shelter capacity but criticized its proposals to ban tents on public property and discourage residents from giving to panhandlers.
“You are outlawing sleeping when you outlaw tents. You can’t separate the two. You have to understand that people are going to have a structure. Shelter is a basic human need,” Hustings said.
She called giving money to homeless people or panhandlers “an act of human compassion.”
“Once you have a city starting to say, ‘Don’t give to homeless people,’ you’re sending a message that these folks don’t deserve your compassion or that they’re dangerous,” Hustings said.
A man who lives with Davis under U.S. 59 and referred to himself as “Mr. Wheeler Station” encouraged patience.
“This is going to be a trial and error thing, so don’t think y’all going to solve this homeless thing overnight,” he said. “Just like it’s a process to get into things, it’s a process to get out of things.”