'Everybody sees it': City Council hears about the city's growing homelessness population
The councilors heard a report from Dr. Louis Wilson, a local gastroenterologist, and Steve Sparks, CEO of Faith Mission, who have launched meetings with various agencies to address the problem.
'It's not your imagination, homelessness has been increasing dramatically,' Wilson said. 'Both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness has spiked. Everybody knows it, everybody sees it.'
He said a big reason for the increase is migration.
'We're experiencing a situation where most of unsheltered homeless in Wichita Falls are not from Wichita Falls,' he said.
Wilson said expertise on addressing the problem is not organized in one place but is scattered around the town in different agencies and is 'screaming for a gathering, screaming to be brought together.'
He said the meetings produced a proposed a plan of action. It includes improved communications among agencies about homeless clients, expanding homeless people's access to mental health care, identifying gaps in emergency homelessness shelters and incentivizing people in housing programs to move out so that more housing vouchers can be available to those who need them.
He also said homeless people have no place to go when they are discharged from medical facilities, and he suggested hiring case managers 'to move into the streets.'
Sparks said, 'Frankly, the trends indicate that without some kind of attention the problems associated with homelessness will worsen.'
He said the community must do everything it can to 'give men, women and children a shot at self-sufficiency.'
'What do you suggest that we do?' council member Tom Taylor said.
Wilson said everything on the action plan list is 'doable.'
'We did not create pie-in-the-sky possible vague things,' Wilson said. 'These things can be checked off.'
He listed emergency shelters as a top priority and said county and city leaders need to come together to address the problems.
Amy Vail, property manager for Big Blue, The Kate and City Center Apartments, all in downtown Wichita Falls, said her tenants have a lot of involvement with police because of homeless people — sometimes multiple times a day.
'How can we move forward? How can we help our tenants?' she said.
'Ignoring them is probably the best bet,' Assistant City Attorney James McKechnie said.
He said hiring private security would be another option.
Vail also said homeless people loiter in a nearby park after dark, and she understands other cities are giving bus passes to homeless people to come to Wichita Falls.
'My tenants are scared,' she said.
Jeremy Davis, director of the Museum of North Texas History and a downtown resident, said he had a physical altercation with a homeless person who tried to get into his building.
'I hear fighting, cussing, screaming, yelling at all hours of the day and night,' he said. "It's got to stop.'
'Unfortunately, the loitering and some of the destruction downtown has gotten worse,' Sparks said. 'Business leaders have come to my office on several occasions and complained about it.'
McKechnie said the city will probably look at revising some ordinances that apply to homelessness.
'I sense the frustration. I feel it. I see it. We all do,' Mayor Tim Short said. 'That's why we're moving forward. Unfortunately, I think our ordinances have not kept up."
'The county stands ready to join with the city of Wichita Falls to take action and move forward on this,' Wichita County Judge Jim Johnson told the panel and suggested possibly forming a joint task force.
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This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: City councilors hear about the city's growing homelessness problem
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