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.
That is pretty much the way Kansas City downtown library is. Just a bunch of bums sleeping on nice chairs...
I had a friend who worked in a "people's law office". They had so many homeless clients, they instituted a rule that clients had to be cold sober when they came to see a lawyer. The homeless clients all drifted away.
If you REALLY want to help the homeless, set up a shelter where they can drink and smoke. That's a realistic solution that the liberals will not allow. They believe if the shelter says "no drinking", the homeless will see the error of their ways and turn into productive members of society.
This is not the reputation we want here in Florida. I doubt that it's true, either.
That's exactly why I have never given any money to any panhandler.
Round them up and send them to Berzerkley.
Houston will forever be remembered by me (and those with a grip on reality) as the city that opened its hearts,homes & wallets to sacrifice for those who became truly homeless.
Thank you Houston
If the Kennedy's didn't have the wealth that built that compound, they would ALL be homeless.
I totally agree with you. Our downtown is full of drunk/drugged ums looking for handouts or worse. All the do-gooders feed them in the middle of Downtown,(that incidently is trying to be revived.) I would run them out of downtown by giving them a basic cinderblock room and shower, Bus line, two meals a day and FAR AWAY FROM EVERYONE ELSE!
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