"That is their home" - Dozens resist eviction from - Houston Chronicle (TX) - DECEMBER 9, 1992 - page 1 DECEMBER 9, 1992 Houston Chronicle (TX) JULIE MASON, ERIC HANSON Page 1 A group of individuals living under a downtown bridge is asking the city to intervene to stop their eviction from the place they call home. In exchange, the homeless will police the area, guarding cars, building and parking meters against downtown vandals. "It's a messed up situation and there's no reason to have it," said J.B. Babineaux, a homeless advocate with a group called Homeless Not Helpless, describing the fear among the homeless of their pending eviction. A core community of about 40 men and women live under the bridge near the historic Allen's Landing. T he location is a routine drop spot for blankets and food. But members of the homeless community say Houston police recently ordered them to dismantle their shanties and disperse -- a charge that police denied T uesday. "We received notice from the University of Houston-Downtown that they were living there and that it might pose some safety problems," said Houston Police spokesman Rick Hartley. "Some officers went down there to take a look at the situation. T hey may have issued some citations for urinating in public, but no one was ordered to move," he said. For now it appears the group will be allowed to remain under the bridge. T hey are seeking assurances, however, that they will not be routed out as the cold weather approaches. Councilwoman Sheila Jackson Lee urged compassion in dealing with the homeless community and said the city needs to develop a policy for coping with the estimated 10,000 living in the streets. Lee visited the bridge earlier this week and asked Mayor Bob Lanier's administration for a report on trash collection and a leaking sewer pipe at the site. "T hese people are not deadbeats like we'd like to think. We'd like to think that a lot of them want to be homeless," Lee said. "T hey've got varying skills, they've got no place to go, and that is their home." T he homeless group sent a letter to city officials outlining the steps they are willing to take so that they might be allowed to stay under the bridge. Lanier said T uesday that he was aware of the letter, although he had not read it, nor had he formulated an opinion on what should be done about the group. For their part, the homeless under the bridge are promising to maintain discipline and sanitary conditions and control cooking and warming fires at their site if they are allowed to stay. T heir offer also includes keeping watch over the cars, buildings and parking meters in the vicinity of the bridge. T he homeless group says that evicting them will only provide a setback to their eventual transition into taxpayers. Babineaux said problems at the site occur when stray homeless from the downtown area come to the bridge to receive charitable handouts. He said there have been incidents of violence and attempted rapes. "People who live under the bridge try to look out for their own down there," Babineaux said. "A lot of the people are there because they have had hard luck and bad times, but they aren't bad people." Houston has not had the problems with homeless people that other cities have experienced. In fact, a city official and a homeless advocate said a federal judge's ruling that guarantees the rights of homeless people would have little impact here. U.S. District Judge Clyde C. Atkins ruled last month that the homeless had a constitutional right to eat, sleep and bathe in public, and ordered the city of Miami to set up safe zones where street people could live without fear of arrest. But in Houston, assistant city attorney Paul Bibler said there are no ordinances aimed at keeping the homeless off the streets. "We do not have any laws against sleeping in public or drinking in public like some other cities do," Bibler said. "T he only thing that could impact them directly is the panhandling ordinance." T hat law, passed in April, requires beggars to remain eight feet away from a citizen and refrain from soliciting when asked. Violators can be fined up to $500. "Most of those type of laws (that can be used against the homeless), such as anti-loitering, were taken off the books during the '80s," said Sally Shipman, director of the Coalition for Homeless of Houston/Harris County. "T he city, to its credit, has done a lot to recognize the rights of the homeless," she said. Copyrig ht 1992 Houston Chronicle