District Judge Lifts Restraining Order On Homeless Camps

HOUSTON, TX — A U.S. District Court has lifted a temporary restraining order that prevented the city from removing homeless encampments in public areas of Houston.

District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled the homeless camps were a public nuisance and posed a threat to those living in and around the camps.

Many of the camps are located beneath the U.S. 59 overpass in Houston’s Museum District and for months, residents and business owners have complained of the homeless are leaving trash and evendefacating in front of their homes and businesses, committing theft, and vandalizing property.

There have also been two who have been shot and killed near those camps since August.

In April the Houston City Council approved an ordinance that banned homeless encampments, but the ordinance was block with a restraining order filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

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Since the restraining order was enacted, the city has been working at keeping order in the areas near the camps with increased patrols, as well as working to create programs to help the homeless.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner released a statement that read in part:

“I’m grateful that 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,” Turner said. “In denying the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, the judge wrote that testimony presented by the city Legal Department “establishes that allowing the encampments to continue in their current condition poses a greater detriment to the city and its residents more so than any harm that may result from the City’s enforcement of the ordinance.”

Along with dissolving his Aug. 22, 2017 temporary restraining order that blocked enforcement of the ordinance, the judge scheduled the case against the ordinance for trial sometime after Dec. 3, 2018.

Officials don’t expect to begin immediately enforcing this ordinance.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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