Houston's homeless adapt to city's ban on camping, which took effect Friday

Lisa Little, 39, sat on a wheeled office chair on the sidewalk of Congress Street at the U.S. 59 overpass, about two home-run lengths from Minute Maid Park.

Little said when she can't find a friend's couch to crash on, she sleeps at the overpass, where on Friday a dozen or so cardboard mats stretched across the sidewalk. "I've got nowhere to go," she said. "Then they try to criminalize you. You get tickets all day long."

Homeless people like Little who sleep under highway overpasses near downtown Houston spent the day winnowing their possessions to comply with a city ordinance that went into effect Friday. It's not a crime to sleep outside, but it is now illegal to set up tents "or any other structure for living" in a public place, and any personal belongings must fit inside a 3-foot cube.

The city ordinance instructs the Houston Police Department to tell people about the new requirements and give them a formal warning if violations continue. Only "a reasonable time" after the warnings can officers give citations, which carry fines up to $500. Arrests can follow, though the head of the mental health division made clear that handcuffs are a last resort.

"There's not a rush to arrest, or even cite," Capt. William Staney said. "We want to make sure that we give everybody due notice, that we help them come into compliance."

"We're not expecting many arrests," he said. "That's not the goal at all."

Caseworkers visit

Though the ordinance took effect Friday, a month after City Council approved it with a single dissenting vote, Staney said on the first day officers did not give any formal warnings.

For now, nonprofit caseworkers are visiting encampments to explain the rules, accompanied by police officers from the Homeless Outreach Team, who spend so much time with folks on the street they know each other by name.

Across the street from Little, an information sheet flapped in the wind Friday, taped to a chair nestled among a pile of belongings that stretched more than 10 feet along a fence.

People who sleep nearby said the owner had not been seen in days and might be in jail.

The pile illustrated what service providers say is a recent problem: encampments encroaching more and more on highly visible public space in Houston.

"We've never had tent cities before," said Thao Costis, CEO of Search Homeless Services. "There are no easy places for people to tuck away anymore."

That is a side effect of the city center's rapid development in recent decades, said Costis, who has worked with Houston's homeless since 1992.

Many used to camp along Buffalo Bayou, for instance, but now the area hosts a new park with popular running trails.

Though the Houston area has nearly 60 percent fewer homeless people than five years ago, those who remain often are more visible, which spurred resident complaints that, in turn, motivated council members to support twin ordinances to regulate encampments and panhandling.

Two blocks north of the ballpark, a red-topped tent that could fit at least six people sat near jerry-rigged structures alongside the Commerce Street overpass, just across Chartres Street from a trendy cafe filling up with lunch-hour customers.

More enforcement

Near the tent, a woman ate crackers and bologna as she sat on a chair planted among wood pallets covered with blankets.

"They tell me I have to have a 3-by-3 (box), and that's not sufficient," said the woman, who would only give her first name, Mary. "We shouldn't be pushed out from where we're living. … We have a right to live just like everyone."

Mary said she was on the list for a housing voucher but recently learned she would have to wait at least another year due to federal funding cuts.

Trash collectors had come Friday morning to pick up items that people were willing to toss, Mary said. But the jumble around her clearly had not shrunk enough to comply with the city ordinance.

HPD plans to slowly step up enforcement over the coming weeks.

"We understand that people don't like the blight of the tents," Capt. Staney said. "We're going to get rid of them, (but) it'll be a little longer."

"These are human beings we're dealing with," he added.

Officers giving citations first must offer to connect violators with medical care, addiction treatment or temporary shelter; only people who refuse help should be arrested, according to a department circular distributed Friday with Chief Art Acevedo's signature.

Both the information sheets and the formal warnings contain a list of shelters. However, many homeless people say they find shelters rarely have open beds, especially for people who don't fall into a special category such as military veterans or abused women. Little said she had tried to sleep at shelters but had little luck.

The HPD captain expressed optimism about the situation.

"Right now the shelters are working with us and saying that if somebody tells us they want shelter, we're going to get them shelter that night," Staney said. "That might not work for 100 percent of the people, but it will work for almost all of them."