Second Ward residents want vagrants out after fatal stabbing

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Second Ward residents are demanding police do something about all the vagrants they say have flooded their neighborhood in the last year.

The issue is getting renewed attention after 77-year-old Anival Ortiz was stabbed to death on the Harrisburg Hike and Bike Trail on Aug. 8 by a man court records list as homeless.

Multiple Second Ward residents told Eyewitness News vagrancy has become a problem along the trail and along Harrisburg Boulevard.

“There are people out here doing some dirty things that shouldn’t be done in front of a woman,” James Carroll said.

“I wouldn’t allow my wife to walk down that trail knowing that she’s gonna get harassed by these men,” Mark Rodriguez, president of the Oaklawn Fullerton Civic Association, said.

Neighbors say the problem has gotten worse since Greyhound relocated its bus station to Harrisburg.

Police were present at a Monday evening townhall meeting where drug use, loitering, and vacant buildings were among the top concerns.

“Is there any way we can shut the water off in these vacant buildings because they’re bathing and they’re showering?” one woman asked.

The Second Ward was left out of a 24/7 sidewalk sleeping ban the city council approved last month for downtown and east downtown.

Yet even in those areas, the ban isn’t always being enforced. ABC13 spotted multiple people camping out on the sidewalk along Bagby across from City Hall on Monday afternoon.

“It is being enforced to the capacity we are able at the moment,” Larry Satterwhite, the city’s public safety and homeland security director, wrote in a statement. “We made a promise not to enforce unless we had a bed to offer.”

Even when a bed is offered, there’s no guarantee it’ll be accepted.

“Unfortunately, some people feel – they feel very alone and lonely inside an apartment, but out on the streets, it’s a little community,” Sgt. Charles Corgey with the Houston Police Department said.

Last November, Mayor John Whitmire vowed to eventually move everyone off the streets.

“You cannot live on the streets of Houston. It’s not safe, and the public doesn’t want you there,” Whitmire said at the time.

Since then, the city said it has placed 183 people in housing or temporary shelters.

While some have found homes at the New Hope housing complex on Harrisburg, neighbors say it doesn’t always keep them off the streets.

“They ain’t got anything to do. They don’t have a job, so at night they’re roaming the streets and going back to their little cubby hole,” Carroll said.

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