Dallas City Council to Vote on Panhandling Enforcement

To combat panhandling along Dallas streets, city council members vote Wednesday on making it illegal to stand or walk on medians. They also will vote on whether to give the Dallas Marshal’s Office authority to enforce that law.

Panhandling or soliciting is sometimes the only way homeless people say they can make money.

Dallas is boosting efforts to help homeless people, but the problem remains enormous.

A new website provides online mapping of current homeless service requests to Dallas 311 over the prior 30 days.

A view of the map Tuesday shows 655 requests with 168 of them still pending.

There is almost always someone soliciting at the corner of Inwood Road and Stemmons Freeway in Dallas. A woman selling flowers on the Inwood median Tuesday said she is from Guatemala, seeking the American Dream and has no other way to make money.

As she spoke, two vehicles collided in the traffic lane behind her.

“Yea, it's too dangerous. Especially in this area. Too much traffic. So, they can go somewhere else,” said Misael Ulloa, a witness at the corner.

Officials say soliciting on the street is dangerous for the people standing there and for drivers.

Driver Alex Torres said Dallas offers opportunities that should make panhandling unnecessary.

“I think it looks bad for the city. I own a business. I am hiring. I am hiring up to 10 to 15 employees. And no one wants to work. Instead of hanging out there, just come and apply,” Torres said.

Other drivers at that corner said the city should be helping people who need help instead of hassling them on the medians.

“I'm not from a wealthy family or anything. I've been homeless before. I've needed something before. And Lord forbid somebody thinks I was on drugs when I needed something to feed my daughter or myself,” driver Monica Rainey said.

The City of Dallas has a panhandling deflection program to discourage people from giving to solicitors, promote charities that provide help, and encourage solicitors to take that help.

The program includes new signs posted at top panhandling locations, educating drivers against making donations.

On Martin Luther King Boulevard at S.M. Wright Freeway Tuesday, one of those signs had been knocked down. A solicitor was asking for money at that spot.

On Lovers Lane at Central Expressway Tuesday another person carried a sign calling himself homeless and asking for money. He stood in the median with one of the city’s signs posted nearby.

An Oct. 21 briefing for a Dallas City Council committee said 90 reports on panhandling have been taken at locations around the city from May through September. The briefing said 698 service requests to 311 were received in that 5-month period.  

The Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions works to arrange housing for homeless people with support from other city agencies.

At Inwood and Stemmons, Driver Tshuzdebranks Minga said the city should help the homeless people.

“I think the government needs to help them to take them off the street because if you don’t have the money, there’s nowhere else to go,” he said.

To free Dallas Police for more serious crimes, the Dallas Marshal’s Office is asked to work on homeless issues along with the other city agencies.