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Houston ranked 'mean' to homeless
Houston Chronicle ^ | Jan. 12, 2006 | MIKE SNYDER

Posted on 01/12/2006 3:45:47 AM PST by Ninian Dryhope

Houston ranked seventh on a list released Wednesday of 20 U.S. cities with particularly harsh measures that criminalize sleeping in public, begging or other behavior associated with homeless people.

In including Houston on the "meanest cities" list for the first time in the four years it has been compiled, leaders of two national homeless-advocacy organizations cited other neighborhoods' efforts to be added to the areas covered under a city ordinance that makes it illegal to lie, sit or place belongings on downtown or Midtown sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The report's authors also cited rules the city adopted in April that prohibit people with "offensive bodily hygiene" from using public libraries. Advocates for the homeless say the rules, which also forbid sleeping on tables or using restrooms for bathing, obviously target homeless people.

The National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty said such measures are growing more common across the country even as urban homelessness worsens.

"A war on the homeless is being waged in downtown America," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the national coalition.

"The criminalization of homelessness is a burning civil rights issue for this decade."

Several homeless people in areas affected by Houston's ordinance said enforcement has been particularly intense recently under the eastern portion of the Pierce Elevated.

The western portions were fenced off last year to provide parking for Metropolitan Transit Authority employees.

"They woke us up one afternoon because the sleeping bag was 1 inch over the sidewalk," said Kris Kirchner, 48, who said she's been living on the streets intermittently for years.

Such efforts, Kirchner said, seem intended to keep homeless people out of downtown, "but I want to know how you make 6,000 people disappear."

Leaders of local groups that serve the homeless said homeless people often move to adjacent neighborhoods in response to police enforcement efforts. Mayor Bill White said he is inclined to agree.

"These ordinances are limited and not effective in dealing with the issue because they focus on moving people around rather than solving the problem," said White, adding that he had supported the 2004 extension of Houston's ordinance to Midtown because of the "overwhelming support" from residents there.

The ordinance applied only to downtown when it was adopted in 2002.

Two years later, leaders of rapidly developing Midtown successfully petitioned for inclusion. The city secretary's office is reviewing similar petitions submitted by three other neighborhoods, including two in the Montrose area, said Dale Harger, the president of the Avondale Association in Montrose.

Harger said an overwhelming majority of the neighborhood's residents and property owners support the extension of the ordinance to Avondale.

Harger and other neighborhood activists say well-intentioned programs offered by churches and charities offer food or showers without helping the homeless find temporary shelter or permanent housing.

"There are some organizations in the neighborhood that artificially attract and concentrate the young homeless crowd, which draws the wolves and the predators," Harger said. "They are hurting the people they're trying to help."

The homeless-advocacy groups said the concerns that often motivate such laws are valid, but they said approaches other than criminalization are more effective and humane.

In Broward County, Fla., a nonprofit agency has partnered with police to create outreach teams that, in five years, have placed more than 11,000 people in shelters while arrests of homeless people have declined.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bums; homeless
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We have work to do to get to number one.
1 posted on 01/12/2006 3:45:49 AM PST by Ninian Dryhope
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To: Ninian Dryhope

when you let the homeless drift aimlessly that is when you are mean to the homeless.


2 posted on 01/12/2006 3:47:43 AM PST by JohnLongIsland
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To: Ninian Dryhope

"that makes it illegal to lie, sit or place belongings on downtown or Midtown sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m."

What's the beef? After 11, you can stretch and take a load off.


3 posted on 01/12/2006 3:49:55 AM PST by Adder (Can we bring back stoning again? Please?)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

Exactly.


4 posted on 01/12/2006 3:50:07 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (Legality does not dictate morality... Lavin)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

Houston should provide comfortable sofabeds at all the bus stops. Leather would be nice.


5 posted on 01/12/2006 3:53:47 AM PST by RTINSC (There is no guarantee of Success but Failure is guaranteed if you are not successful..)
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To: Ninian Dryhope
"The criminalization of homelessness is a burning civil rights issue for this decade."

LOL!!!!!

6 posted on 01/12/2006 3:57:01 AM PST by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

Whoa there. *Dallas* is the *Meanest City in Texas.* We're pikers, slacking off at 7th in the US to their 6th.


7 posted on 01/12/2006 3:57:50 AM PST by Rte66
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To: Ninian Dryhope; SmithL; NormsRevenge; presidio9

Send 'em to 'Frisco.

We'll give 'em free WiFi.


8 posted on 01/12/2006 3:58:04 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Ninian Dryhope
You have some tough competition. Detroit is throwing a Superbowl party for the homeless to keep the panhandlers away from visitors. If begging is your occupation, this is restraint of trade.

Congratulations on making the list. It is an indicator that Houston is conservative. They don't have homeless in Liberal Town.
9 posted on 01/12/2006 3:58:13 AM PST by Bring Back Old Sparky (Teddy Kennedy: Drink! Drive! Swim for your life!)
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To: Ninian Dryhope
Houston ranked 'mean' to homeless

Ok, so what's the down side of this?
10 posted on 01/12/2006 4:03:27 AM PST by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: Ninian Dryhope
If you ever go to Houston.
You better walk right;
You better not stagger,
You better not fight;
Sheriff Benson will arrest you,
He'll carry you down,
And if the jury finds you guilty,
Penitentiary bound.

Let the midnight special
Shine her light on me;
Let the midnight special
Shine her ever-loving light on me.

11 posted on 01/12/2006 4:03:34 AM PST by Jaxter ("Vivit Post Funera Virtus")
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To: Ninian Dryhope
No favor ever goes unpunished, I guess.

This is EXACTLY the kind of thanks you would expect from people who expect nothing from themselves, and everything from the world in return for nothing, and rrrright now.

12 posted on 01/12/2006 4:05:04 AM PST by gaijin
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To: Ninian Dryhope

maybe some could move up to the kennedy compound


13 posted on 01/12/2006 4:15:42 AM PST by sure_fine (*not one to over kill the thought process*)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

The solution is simple. Have the homeless camp out at the Chronicle building. The lib's that work there surely won't mind.


14 posted on 01/12/2006 4:22:32 AM PST by keithtoo (Global Warming causes everything, and everything causes Global Warming.)
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To: JohnLongIsland

Detroit is about to become No. 1 due to the Stupor Bowl.


15 posted on 01/12/2006 4:22:35 AM PST by goarmy (GO BRONCOS!!!)
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To: Ninian Dryhope

Excellent plan Houston, you know how to move these indigents along to greener pastures. Make it tough on them.


16 posted on 01/12/2006 4:35:14 AM PST by Vaquero ("An armed society is a polite society" Robert Heinlein)
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To: Rte66

I quit using the Dallas Public Library downtown because of the "homeless" problem.


17 posted on 01/12/2006 4:48:03 AM PST by toomanygrasshoppers ("In technical terminology, he's a loon")
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To: Ninian Dryhope
The National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

You'd think instead of begging people for money so they can publish this kind of stuff these "nonprofit charities / lawyer support groups" would raise money then provide these people a home. The ONLY reason we are reading about these so-called "rankings" is so these outfits can get their names out there so they can raise more taxpayer subsidized money.

I wonder where Houston ranks in not giving new Mercedes and Rolex's to the homeless. /sarcasm off.

18 posted on 01/12/2006 4:52:54 AM PST by isthisnickcool (Quoting Hillary Clinton: "You know, you know, you know, you know.....")
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To: Ninian Dryhope
Experiment; Make it illegal to give money to the 'Homeless' for one year and see how many of these people give up their lifestyle. The majority wouldn't exist without you and I.
19 posted on 01/12/2006 4:58:42 AM PST by wolfcreek
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To: wolfcreek

Ken Hamlin suggests that we feed the homeless to the hungry and solve 2 problems simultaneously.


20 posted on 01/12/2006 5:04:11 AM PST by EricT. (Posting on FR helped me to quit screaming at the TV.)
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