People in Houston 'at risk of being arrested just because they are homeless'

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

People in Houston 'at risk of being arrested just because they are homeless'

Associated Press in Houston
Fri 29 Dec ‘17 19.35 GMT

People in Houston are “at risk of being arrested just because they are homeless”, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union said, after a federal judge cleared the city to enforce an ordinance that prohibits the setting up of tents and temporary living quarters in public places.

US district judge Kenneth Hoyt, who had blocked the law while a civil lawsuit is pending in his court, lifted his temporary restraining order on Thursday and denied a request for a preliminary injunction.

“While this court is indeed sympathetic to the impact that enforcement of the encampment ordinance on unsheltered homeless individuals poses,” Hoyt wrote, “the court recognizes the city’s police powers to enact and enforce reasonable legislation that promotes the health, safety and general welfare of all Houston residents.”

The ACLU of Texas is suing the city on behalf of four homeless people, contending the ordinance violates the constitutional protections of homeless people and makes homelessness a crime.

Hoyt disagreed, saying the ordinance “prohibits obstructions that hinder the city from preserving public property for its intended purpose”.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/29/houston-homeless-aclu-texas-ordinance

[shenmue]

1. Old saying: 'Poverty is not a crime'

[Igel]

2. And still isn't.

Pitching tents and living in them on city ground, though, can be unsanitary and unsafe. Since unsanitary, and this can be on ground that anybody else can frequent and use, making camp there was criminalized.

The contrary position was for the court to order the city to obligatorily provide sanitary services to the homeless. (My quip: Apparently there's a constitutional right to a port-a-potty.)

I don't have a solution given the narrow constraints involved in the lawsuit. But it should be pointed out that this ordinance came along in tandem with increased services to get the homeless off the street, especially services targeting vets. Some said "no" or quickly relapsed and there was a debate over whether homelessness should be a protected lifestyle choice.

Ironically, many of the places under dispute are floodplain or underpasses, and they were hard hit during Harvey.