Houston is sharpening its approach to homelessness by expanding the city’s civility ordinance to make it enforceable 24 hours a day in two key districts: Downtown and East Downtown. The City Council, barring council members Tarsha Jackson and Abbie Kamin, voted in favor of the updated ordinance.
The ordinance makes it illegal to sit, lie down or store belongings in public spaces such as sidewalks and parks between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. It only applies to specially designated zones, which must be requested by residents and approved by the city council.
Mayor John Whitmire’s administration now expands the hours to all day, every day, but for now, only in the Downtown and East Downtown Management Districts.
Mike Nichols, director of the Housing and Community Development Department and Larry Satterwhite, director of Public Safety and Homeland Security (and former Houston Police Department chief) emphasized the move is not about criminalizing homelessness, but rather giving law enforcement and outreach teams a stronger tool to help move people into services and off the streets.
The city hopes to raise $70 million for the operations, seeking $20 million from private philanthropy and $40 million in federal disaster recovery funds.
A growing crisis with deeply human stakes
While Houston is often touted as a national model for reducing homelessness, having housed thousands over the past decade, officials say the crisis is evolving.
According to data presented by the Coalition for the Homeless, roughly 200 people are sleeping on the streets in Downtown on any given night. The 2024 Homeless Count & Survey shows that 3,280 people experience homelessness at any given moment in the Houston region. Per the 2023 count, Black or African Americans made up 55% of the population experiencing homelessness in Houston.
Houston’s most challenging cases, officials stressed, are no longer just about poverty or sudden financial hardship. Many involve severe mental illness or substance use, making it harder to convince people to accept help or shelter.
“We’re down to the most difficult, challenging population,” said Satterwhite, arguing that the current ordinance, which stops at 11 p.m., severely limits law enforcement’s ability to keep encampments from reforming overnight. “From minor assault, theft, robbery, sexual assault and murder…all of those things happen in our streets and they do happen to our homeless.”
The revised civility ordinance
At the heart of the new push is an update to Houston’s civility ordinance, which bans people from sitting, lying down, or storing belongings on sidewalks around the clock.
The city says this is critical to dismantling large encampments, which can be unsafe for both the unhoused and surrounding neighborhoods.
Focusing on Downtown and East Downtown, the city says it has enough shelter beds to offer alternatives, although expansion to other areas will depend on resources.
“This is just gonna be another tool in the kit if council approves it, so that we can encourage individuals to please go get out of the elements, get healthcare, food and a bed that are not receiving it,” Whitmire said. “It’s just wrong for people to live in those conditions. And it’s wrong for the public to have to engage this population in public spaces.”
Still, violations can technically lead to citations: Class C misdemeanors with a maximum $500 fine, although officials say the vast majority result in warnings and diversion to services.
A more humane approach?
Houston’s model pairs trained officers with mental health clinicians and outreach workers. Much of the success hinges on capacity. City leaders acknowledged they do not yet have enough beds citywide to extend this ordinance beyond Downtown.
They are relying on federal funds, new philanthropic dollars, and partnerships with groups like SEARCH and the Harris Center to expand housing and behavioral health options.
“It’s very important that this ordinance passes because we need to break the habits and cycles of all the folks, not just the folks experiencing homelessness, but the folks who are out there trying to help,” Nichols said.
Council members expressed optimism and concern, urging careful monitoring to ensure people are not pushed into other neighborhoods.
Council Member Abbie Kamin pressed for details on shelter barriers, like religious requirements, separation of families, bans on pets, or refusal to allow belongings and called for a breakdown of beds with and without these restrictions. Director Nichols promised more information and insisted there were choices.
“I have full faith in the intention of this council, but we’re creating ordinances that outlive us and we have to take that into consideration,” she said.
Council Member Letitia Plummer raised similar concerns, advocating for more consistent deployment of Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams (MCOTs), which pair clinicians without law enforcement.
Meanwhile, council member Twila Carter argued that the ordinance change was crucial for addressing large encampments, not necessarily isolated individuals, and highlighted the urgency given the Houston ISD’s report that more than 6,300 homeless students are homeless. She identified properties to add hundreds of beds, but estimated it would take at least $50 million to fund.
