"We identified 10 homeless encampments over a two-week period," Bert said. "Some of the sites have been abandoned; several have now been cleaned up. ... And all of these locations were on private or [Texas Department of Transportation] property."
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Bert said he could not make a direct correlation between the homeless encampments and violent or property crimes.
During his presentation, Bert said there were eight charges against homeless people in 2020, six charges in 2021 and four charges so far in 2022.
"I would argue that charges against homeless people are certainly not rising," Bert said.
However, Bert also said the calls for service have risen, with 153 calls for service in 2022 year-to-date, 102 taken in 2021 and 59 taken in 2020.
"So really in two years, our call load jumped nearly [three times] in terms of calls for service about homeless individuals," Bert said. "When we get them there's not necessarily a crime, but people are calling and saying, 'There's something going [on], or I don't know what it is. Can you come and check it out?' That's really the most common call we get."
Bert said the most common thing the department finds itself enforcing is criminal trespasses.
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Following Bert's presentation, Barry Hart, Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries executive director, and Robert Marmerstein, HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball CEO, spoke.
"We don't provide shelter, and frankly, that's hard," Hart said. "It's hard to know someone doesn't have a place to stay, and you can't really do anything for them in that regard. We've tried to accumulate some other resources that help us to direct clients."
Hart suggested City Council look to see what other communities are doing in regard to the homeless population.
"It's wonderful to see our community growing, but poverty and homelessness are only going to grow with our growth," Hart said. "And so we do need to get a handle around it and figure out what we want to do."
Marmerstein said the sources of homelessness and poverty across societies are varied.
"Our responses to them, I think it's important [that they] are tailored to what we see in our communities," Marmerstein said.
In response to a question from Council Member John Ford following Hart and Marmerstein's comments, Bert said he believes Tomball has 15-20 homeless people in total.
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"Any response this city takes to homelessness, I would urge that it is holistic, it is thoughtful, and it looks at this from many different levels other than it's simply a law enforcement issue," Bert said.
After the presentation, City Manager David Esquivel said his recommendation is to form a committee that will then create a plan of action, beginning with identifying the demographics of Tomball's homeless population and the resources available.
No action was taken on this issue at the Nov. 7 meeting because it was a workshop meeting.
This article comes from our ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspapers.
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