The Houston mayor’s office plans to expand the city’s so-called “civility ordinance,” which currently prohibits lying down, sitting or placing personal possessions on sidewalks during the day in 12 parts of the city, including Downtown and East Downtown. In just those two areas, Mayor Whitmire wants to expand the rules to cover the night — effectively prohibiting the presence of homeless people.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s administration plans to ramp up the effort to remove homeless people from public spaces in July.
“Our goal is to get the homeless off the streets of Houston,” Whitmire said at a press conference last week.
Larry Satterwhite, Whitmire’s Public Safety and Homeland Security director, told Houston Public Media that the administration will seek a modification to city rules in the second week of July…