Houston's panhandling, camping ordinances violate rights, lawsuit says

Edwin Ford, right, and Roy Dailey are packing up their belongings into a small cart ﻿in preparation for moving from underneath the overpass of U.S. 59 at Congress Ave. Friday. ﻿ Edwin Ford, right, and Roy Dailey are packing up their belongings into a small cart ﻿in preparation for moving from underneath the overpass of U.S. 59 at Congress Ave. Friday. ﻿ Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Photo: Yi-Chin Lee, Staff Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Houston's panhandling, camping ordinances violate rights, lawsuit says 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The ACLU of Texas announced Monday that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three homeless Houston residents asking a federal judge to halt the city's new ordinances limiting panhandling and camping in public.

City Council passed the two ordinances last month.

The encampment rule forbids tents or other structures for living in public areas and requires that all of a person's belongings fit into a three-foot cube; it took effect Friday.

The panhandling rule, which went into effect when it was signed April 12, extended the city's restrictions against impeding a roadway to also forbid blocking a sidewalk or doorway.

"This law shows little respect or sympathy for the impoverished people of Houston," said Eugene Stroman, who says in the lawsuit that he has been turned away from emergency shelters. "Living in shelters just isn't an option for us, but if you can't find your own place to live, you're treated like a criminal."

READ MORE: Houston's homeless adapt to city's ban on camping, which took effect Friday

Mayor Sylvester Turner defended the ordinances in response to questions from the Chronicle at a Monday afternoon news conference, saying the rules aimed to balance constitutional rights and "the legitimate public health safety and welfare of all citizens in the public space."

"Based on my reading of the lawsuit filed by the ACLU, they would have us do nothing," the mayor added. "We have chosen to work with those living on the streets on a one by one basis to assess and address their individual needs and provide compassionate and meaningful solutions. Make no mistake, this is a public safety issue and we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that it does not exist. The question is what is the best way or ways to transition people from living on the street."

The mayor has said the panhandling ordinance doesn't put an undue burden on free speech, as the ACLU lawsuit contends.

"We're not penalizing speech," he said last month. "We are saying your conduct cannot be such that you impede the traffic or the flow of people who have every right to utilize sidewalks, hike and bike trails and their doorways."

On Monday he added that Houston's encampment ordinance wouldn't be as vulnerable as those in other cities because it was citywide rather than targeting a particular place, which the Supreme Court made harder to justify in a 2015 ruling, lawyers said.

READ MORE: Turner's homeless plan includes 'low-level shelters' under overpasses

Trisha Trigilio, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said in a news release that the city has "admirably managed to reduce homlessness by pursuing sensible and compassionate solutions. But these latest ordinances abandon that humane approach. The City says they're meant to get people into shelters with 'tough love,' but the truth is the shelters are full and Houston's homeless have nowhere else to go."

However, the Houston Police Department captain who oversees the mental health division told the Chronicle on Friday that he was optimistic about shelter beds.

"Right now, the shelters are working with us and saying that if somebody tells us they want shelter, we're going to get them shelter that night," Capt. William Staney said. "That might not work for 100 percent of the people, but it will work for almost all of them."

Another legal activist took issue with the use of police and other resources to enforce the two laws.

"Laws that criminalize homelessness are ineffective, waste limited public resources and violate basic human and constitutional rights," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. "The Law Center shares the ACLU's concerns that Houston's new ordinances governing outdoor camping and panhandling violate homeless persons' constitutional rights."

Capt. Staney said Friday that Houston police would slowly ramp up enforcement. He said no one was arrested, cited or even formally warned on Friday. However, police eventually would take away people's property if they keep more belongings than would fit in a 3-foot cube, as the ordinance requires.

The police department circulated a memo Friday emphasizing that arrest is a last resort and that officers must first offer access to medical help, addiction treatment and temporary shelter before taking action under the new rules.

While the ACLU lawsuit and some homeless people contend that shelters don't have room, the mayor's special assistant for homeless initiatives differed on Monday.

"We've worked with these shelters to make sure that even if a bed is not available that there's still room for them to get them out from the elements inside where there's additional services," said the assistant, Marc Eichenbaum.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, contends that the ordinances infringe on civil rights and violate several constitutional guarantees: First Amendment free-speech rights, Fourth Amendment freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, and Fourteenth Amendment limits on vague laws.

Another plaintiff, Tammy Kohr, said the issue went beyond practical matters.

"The main thing these laws take from us is our dignity," Kohr said. "We're not bad people. We're just trying to survive."

The lawsuit also asks the judge to grant class-action status, meaning the three plaintiffs can sue on behalf of all people similarly affected by the laws.