“While this court is indeed sympathetic to the impact that enforcement of the encampment ordinance on unsheltered homeless individuals poses, 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,” Hoyt wrote.
Hoyt disagreed with the argument about enforcement making homelessness a crime, saying the ordinance “prohibits obstructions that hinder the city from preserving public property for its intended purpose.”
City officials argue the tent cities and encampments, primarily under freeway overpasses, are hazardous to public health and safety.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said he was grateful the judge “has, for now, essentially endorsed the city’s effort to strike a balance between preserving personal freedoms of every Houstonian and eliminating threats to public health that have developed at and near encampments on public property in the center of the city.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, on behalf of four homeless people, is suing the city, contending the ordinance violates the constitutional protections of homeless people and makes homelessness a crime.