HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Neighbors in north Houston are sounding the alarm about a street corner that they say has become a hotspot for vagrancy and crime.
At all hours of the day, you’ll catch people loitering at the METRO light rail station and parking lots on the corner of Fulton and Cavalcade.
“We’ve seen cases where they’re trying to stab each other. They’re fighting each other,” a North Houston resident, Antonio Avalos, said.
“They’re using the restroom. They’re defecating on themselves. They are urinating. They are naked,” Monica Avalos said.
Others say they’ve caught people committing lewd acts and using drugs.
“Just the other day, we were passing by and there was a woman prostituting herself out there,” Cheryl Baxley said.
Neighbors say they’ve been reporting what they see to police but that the problems continue.
The Houston Police Department tells Eyewitness News that officers are handling the matter as best they can.
“When you’re too scared to get onto a bus or stand at the bus station, that’s not good,” Baxley said.
Councilman Mario Castillo agrees.
“Can we get an officer out here to enforce loitering or camping? That’s a struggle when we have a shortage of officers and they are responding to high-priority, high-level emergency calls,” Castillo said.
Castillo said his office has given HPD $100,000 to respond to calls in his district.
He’s urging people to report issues to a special website he’s set up: DistrictHPatrol.com.
“As you report, we’ll route it to HPD. They report back to us on what the disposition is, and we put that right back on the website,” Castillo said.
METRO police sent Eyewitness News the following statement:
“The safety and security of our customers, employees, and the overall community are METRO’s highest priority. The MPD Crime Suppression Team and C.A.R.E. (Crisis, Assessment, Response, and Engagement) Unit are closely monitoring this area. The C.A.R.E. team frequently visits the Cavalcade rail platform and bus shelters on Fulton and Cavalcade, providing resources and support to people experiencing homelessness. MPD’s Crime Suppression Team, working in partnership with the Houston Police Department, has also conducted joint operations around Cavalcade, Airline, and I-45, resulting in numerous arrests.”
