Homeless population cleared from area under U.S. 59 in Midtown; city, state deny Super Bowl as impetus

The two police officers who came Monday morning and told Rhonda Parkton and dozens of other homeless people who had been living under U.S. 59 to move on were not mean spirited.

They gave ample notice, Parkton said, and time for people to gather their things. But they were insistent that everyone had to go, and Parkton, 29, like several others who had been living there thought they knew why: in less than three months the country's biggest sporting event - the Super Bowl - was coming to town, and nobody wanted to see Houston's gritty underbelly.

"That's what everyone's saying," Parkton said, of others who frequented the underpass

Not so, said officials with the Texas Department of Transportation, city of Houston, and homeless advocates Friday. TxDOT, which initiated the clearing and fencing off of that area, said it had heard safety concerns for drivers and pedestrians. Advocates also note Houston has done much to alleviate homelessness and it will continue its efforts regardless of Super Bowl LI.

But Parkton and others' concerns reflect a tension present in every big city during big-ticket events like the Super Bowl, when fans, celebrities and politicians from across the world descend on a place. In February, that place is Houston.

Before last year's Super Bowl near San Francisco, that city's Mayor Ed Lee told homeless camping along a main street there they would have to move.

During the Olympics in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, officials cordoned or blocked off blighted, crime-ridden or impoverished neighborhoods.

On Friday, workers with the National Fencing Company were rigging up serrated wire across from Parkton's underpass. That area was surrounded by a chain-link fence.

Piles of clothes, cardboard boxes, shelves and seats and chairs lay scattered on the ground, remnants of the camp that advocates called one of several gathering places for homeless in the city.

Housing efforts work

Marilyn Brown, president and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless, said the city began an earnest effort to house the homeless more than five years ago, to great success.

In 2011, according to special point-in-time counts of homeless individuals, Brown said Harris County had more than 8,500 homeless individuals on the streets and in shelters.

In this year's count in January, they found just over 3,600. Over the last five years, the city and other organizations have placed more than 7,500 formerly homeless in supportive housing. Ninety percent of those provided housing were there two years later.

The coalition, which helps administer homeless-reduction efforts with the city, law enforcement, and dozens of other service providers said at no point has the Super Bowl been a cause for action.

"It has never been anything other than maybe the Super Bowl is a bit of a milestone for us," Brown said.

Despite the city's efforts, places like the underpass near the Wheeler Bus station remained, Brown said. One problem is lack of housing. Brown said local leaders are working on a capital campaign that could boost housing availability for the homeless.

Those living on the streets, and at the Midtown U.S. 59 underpass, also include complex cases where individuals might have severe mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders.

Drug use prevalent

Marc Eichenbaum, the special assistant to the mayor for homeless initiatives, said the area was the biggest hot spot in the city for synthetic marijuana, also known as Kush. Clusters of overdoses continue to flare up.

Many of the individuals moved out of the area this past week did not even live in that area and only traveled there to deal or use synthetic marijuana, Eichenbaum said.

He said the city routinely visited the area to provide substance abuse, housing and other assistance to individuals in that area, and will continue to do so. Many, like Parkton, have moved to areas close by. Others are sought out.

TxDOT spokesman Danny Perez said "local law enforcement" asked TxDOT to look into a traffic safety issue at the location that endangered people crossing a nearby exit ramp as well as drivers using the off ramp. The area is a "state right of way" Perez said.

"The best means of keeping folks from crossing the ramp was to fence off the area under the freeway," Perez said.

Brown and Eichenbaum questioned how the homeless clearing was handled. Ideally, the city and service groups would know well ahead of time about the fencing to help displaced individuals.

"There definitely was a breakdown in communication," Eichenbaum said. "This is obviously not the way that the mayor would want to handle it, because we believe in doing a holistic approach, and not just moving problems around."

Successful approach

Perez responded to coordination concerns by stating TxDOT will "continue to work with our community partners to address traffic safety concerns."

Eichenbaum said the Super Bowl would definitively not factor into any city efforts to address homelessness, including the move of individuals from under U.S. 59.

"For the past four years the city has been leading the nation," he said. "We're going to continue doing what we've always been doing."