Fort Worth clears east side of homeless camps, but issue not going away

Eighteen homeless camps across east Fort Worth were cleared recently and the work deemed a good start by city officials, but at least one City Council member fears the issue has become a citywide “epidemic” that requires far more attention.

“This is a great first step,” District 3 Councilman W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman said. “I want the priority to be on the east side, but I’ll tell you the Camp Bowie corridor is running a close second right now. It’s getting worse and worse. We need to recognize this probably is epidemic citywide now.”

Zimmerman’s comments came after the council this week was briefed on efforts being made to clean up a proliferation of camps on the city’s east side after several residents complained. There, the camps have been concentrated along Sycamore Creek and in and around the Meadowbrook neighborhood.

In response, the city embarked on a three-phased program to rid the city of those camps. It has completed the first phase of clearing the people out of the camps, but is now facing cleaning up debris and trash left behind, said Fernando Costa, an assistant city manager.

That process should be completed in the next couple of weeks at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, Costa said. Code Compliance and the city’s Parks Department are handling the clean-up effort, he said.

In Fort Worth, 1,484 homeless people were counted in January 2016, which was flat from the prior year, according to the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition. In Tarrant and Parker counties, 1,938 people were homeless at that point, an increase of only 24 people, a 1.25 percent increase from the year before. But, homelessness continues to shrink as a percentage of the population, the organization said.

District 8 Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray, whose district includes portions of the east side, said she appreciated the recent work, but too many times the city starts to give the homeless camp issue attention and then stops, and that needs to end, she said.

“It should be something we are looking at consistently ... all across the city,” Gray said.

Long-term issue

Homeless camps has been an issue for years in Fort Worth, not only on public property but private property, too.

For example, Gray said several tent cities are located along the Union Pacific Railroad line along East Lancaster Boulevard. She thinks the railroad should help clear them away.

“Because it’s the railroad I don’t know if we don’t say anything, but you literally have a whole tent village along the Union Pacific line and that’s something we need to be focusing on as well,” Gray said. “We have lots of work to do.”

Costa agreed, saying homeless camps are impacting the city economically and financially, and that the city needs to be more vigilant.

“This problem will not go away as a result of this effort and will continue,” Costa said. “A lot of these campers will just move on and try to establish elsewhere.”

Costa said the homeless camps are unsafe, unhealthy “and have no place in our community.” He said the conditions in these camps are detrimental to the people living in them and to the surrounding neighborhoods.

“They’re also a violation of the law,” Costa said. “We want to be sure we eliminate them.”

In this recent effort, 40 illegal campers were issued criminal trespass warnings and referred to nonprofit and faith-based organizations that work with the homeless, Costa said.

But, police also made three felony and two misdemeanor arrests, he said.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Fort Worth clears east side of homeless camps, but issue not going away."