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An merchandise to think about adopting panhandling restrictions in unincorporated areas of Harris County failed after commissioners solid a cut up vote on Thursday.
In his pitch for stronger enforcement in opposition to panhandling and roadside merchandising, Commissioner Tom Ramsey pointed to 150 pedestrian deaths on county roadways final yr, however he couldn’t instantly say what number of of these pedestrians who died had been panhandling.
RELATED: Commissioners to think about panhandling restrictions in unincorporated Harris County
The proposed ordinance aimed to stability public security issues with humanitarian issues by making a framework that will have revered particular person rights and supported susceptible populations, in keeping with commissioners courtroom paperwork. Ramsey beforehand referred to as the problem the commonest one he hears from residents of his precinct, which covers suburbs like Cypress, Spring and Atascocita.
“I’ve seen little kids with their mother and father within the median as automobiles race by them at speeds that simply make no sense to me,” he mentioned Thursday. “That is one other instrument in our means to manage what goes on inside the touring roadways. We adopted a Imaginative and prescient Zero plan, which suggests we’re against deaths on our roadways. I can’t consider any extra susceptible place than to see of us the place they’re. Doing these sorts of actions creates an enormous drawback.”
Ramsey proposed a movement to direct the county lawyer’s workplace to overview potential restrictions and draft an ordinance that will have gone again to commissioners for a remaining vote at a later courtroom date.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia seconded the movement and mentioned commissioners may debate the deserves of the ordinance after one was drafted. He mentioned it may deliver up points about enforcement and who could also be caught up in them.
The proposal didn’t garner the assist of Democratic commissioners Rodney Ellis and Lesley Briones, who each raised issues that the restrictions would negatively influence the county’s unhoused residents. Harris County Choose Lina Hidalgo was not current at commissioners courtroom Thursday.
“I simply don’t suppose we should criminalize folks being poor,” Ellis mentioned. “The research that I’ve seen from San Francisco and Fairfax counties discovered no important proof that panhandling endangers public security and that enforcement of panhandling rules primarily displaces poor folks.”
The failed movement comes months after Houston’s metropolis council voted to approve an analogous rule that prohibits sitting, standing and strolling on median strips on divided roadways in metropolis limits. Council members on the time mentioned the rule does not particularly goal panhandling, however prevents it on slender medians.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire speculated that some panhandlers earn $200 to $300 a day whereas additionally gathering Supplemental Safety Revenue advantages from the federal authorities. He mentioned the brand new metropolis enforcement is affordable as a result of some panhandlers “have gotten extra aggressive.”
