City evacuates homeless camp as health hazard
Encampment called ‘serious health hazard’
Dozens of homeless people were temporarily displaced Thursday from an underpass in Midtown for what city officials called a “serious health hazard.” City workers descended with power washers to remove waste, trash and animal carcasses from the encampment.
Renesha Allen and her fiance dragged their three tents, half a dozen boxes, three coolers and two bikes across the street from the underpass they call home as city crews moved in to clean.
“I’ve got three years worth of clothes here,” she said.
Allen and dozens of other homeless people were temporarily displaced Thursday from the Interstate 69 underpass in Midtown for what city officials called a “serious health hazard,” as workers descended with power washers to scrub out feces, urine, trash and animal carcasses from the encampment.
“Nobody should be living in this filth,” said Marc Eichenbaum, special assistant on homelessness to Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The cleanup — the second in a month by the Houston Health Department — is the city’s latest effort to control the homeless encampments since the city’s ban against tent camps became the target of a federal lawsuit.
But even as city employees and officers with the Houston Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team worked at the I-69 camp Thursday, they realized it wasn’t a permanent solution.
“It’s inhumane,” said City Council member Dwight Boykins, whose district includes the camp.
The camp near Caroline and LaBranch — among at least a halfdozen camps scattered throughout the city — has grown rapidly over the past year, even as the city’s homeless population has declined to its lowest levels in years. The homeless population in Harris and Fort Bend counties fell 57 percent between 2011 and 2016 to about 3,600, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.
Public health concerns
On Thursday, the power washing began about 9:30 a.m. as the underpass’ occupants stuffed clothing in clear plastic bags and grills into a U-Haul. A garbage truck followed. City officials said couches and mattresses had to go for fear of contamination.
The city will store the belongings for free for up to 90 days in East Downtown, Eichenbaum said.
Yet activist Shere Dore said that wasn’t enough for people with no place else to go.
“The city is not making it easy for the homeless to get out of here,” Dore said.
Residents were told Monday about the scheduled cleaning, but most refused to leave until officials arrived Thursday morning. They said they were frustrated with being shuttled from neighborhood to neighborhood and the restrictions that come with living in a shelter. Many had previously lived on the streets in downtown.
The city passed an ordinance in April that was set to kick in May 12 banning tents and other habitation structures on public property and requiring that personal belongings fit inside a 3-foot cube.
The April ordinance and another ordinance banning panhandling were part of city attempts to deal with increased complaints about begging and the homeless camps. Citations would carry fines up to $500.
The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit against the city on behalf of three homeless people the same day the ordinance went into effect, arguing the restrictions were unconstitutional.
Officials said Thursday’s cleanup was not connected to the city ordinances but instead was driven by the public health concerns.
Construction to follow
David Persse, the director of the city’s emergency medical services, toured the Midtown encampment in July and August and found animal carcasses, tents coated in bird droppings and buckets filled with human waste.
“There was literally piles — inches-high piles — of human feces in areas that were ... stained with urine,” Persse said Thursday. “Right next to that there was trash.”
Lakeith Jones, 42, was one of the encampment’s few residents who wasn’t bothered by the cleaning. He had been living under the highway for eight months.
He said he had considered staying in homeless shelters but lacked the necessary identification to get a place to sleep.
“This isn’t good for me,” Jones said, citing the unsanitary conditions.
The cleaning comes days before construction is scheduled to start on a parking lot under part of the underpass, Eichenbaum said. The parking lot, which is for a nearby nonprofit, will be in the center of what is now the encampment, he said.
Nearby homeowners have been complaining since tents started going up about a year ago under the freeway.
Boykins, the city council member who lives about two miles away, said his neighbors are concerned about crime, public defecation and drug activity.
Lynda Fuqua, 54, who owns a home nearby on La Salle Street, recalled seeing just one couch below the overpass last November. By last month, the outreach team had counted 50 tents in the area.
And Fuqua has spent $1,000 adding extra gates around her home.
“By letting it get this big,” she said, “(the city) created a huge problem.”