HOUSTON: MAYOR JOHN WHITMIRE CITY COUNCIL HOMELESS ORDINANCE DOA
- Michael Thervil
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Written by Michael Thervil
[Mayor John Whitmire City Council homeless ordinance} In an article published by Houston’s KPRC entitled “MAYOR WHITMIRE TARGETS HOMELESSNESS IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTON WITH NEW ORDINANCE” it highlighted the fact that both Mayor John Whitmire and the City Council will be implementing a new ordinance soon that would prohibit Houstonians who are homeless from sleeping on the streets of downtown Houston between the hours of 7am to 11pm. There are several questions that come to mind of many Houstonians concerning the implementation of this new city ordinance. Those questions are as follows:
Why only implement this ordinance in Downtown Houston?
Why not implement this ordinance across the City of Houston?
If homeless people aren’t allowed to sleep on public streets where will homeless people be able to sleep?
Homelessness in Houston is not a new phenomenon – why the push for cracking down on the homeless population of Houston now?
Why doesn’t the City of Houston have the necessary resources and processes already put in place to deal with homelessness in the first place?
The list of questions can go on and on, but it has been suggested by the most astute Houstonians that the root cause of homelessness in Houston should be addressed first. When it comes to the passing of this new city ordinance, it was stated by Houston housing director michael Nichols that:
“It ensures that when unhoused individuals are engaged by law enforcement, they are not only made aware of the ordinance but also prepared with a path to services and housing.”
The issue here lies in the lack of personnel the city must lend to such an initiative. Given the fact that the City of Houston can barely hire enough people to work for it in other capacities, it can induce that the City of Houston will never be able to hire enough people to make this program work; but it will never be in the position to pay enough people a livable wage in the first place. Given the fact that 47% of Houston residents are one paycheck away from being homeless, and the median income in Houston is roughly $41,142 per capita combined with Houston having an estimated population of 2.3 million with an estimated third of the Houston population experiencing homelessness, there’s simply no way Mayor Whitmire’s city ordinance will amount to any kind of significant success.
Why specifically limit the implementation of the ordinance on the homeless population of Downtown Houston? What about aiding the homeless within the entire City of Houston? Could it be because the World Cup is coming to Houston next year? Is it because the socio-economically affluent Houstonians and business are complaining. While it is true that tackling homelessness in Houston is a complex task like anywhere else in America, the vast number of solutions are still simple in nature. The question is does Mayor John Whitmire have the guts to implement them?
Comments