Residents in a Fort Worth neighborhood are concerned about a growing population of homeless camps.
“[It is] a biohazard. I mean there’s used needles, condoms [and] they are urinating [and] defecating in our creeks,” Thomas Hamilton said. “It’s not safe for someone to take their kids to experience nature at the creek.”
Hamilton has lived in the Meadowbrook area of Fort Worth for two years and has documented around 18 camps in his community.
“People just going out to enjoy their neighborhood will go into a wrong area, so to speak, and not be aware of the dangers that lie there,” Hamilton said. “Heaven forbid some kids go off to the creek to play and something bad happens.”
Hamilton said they have learned of a new threat.
“People are actually setting booby traps along these creeks to keep people out of their camps,” he said. “All it’s going to take is for an innocent individual who doesn’t know that these things exist and end up hurt or killed or something bad.”
A North Dallas group that works with the homeless told police, while on an outreach mission, a homeless man said he set fish hooks around his camp and taught other homeless people how to do the same. Group members said they saw the hooks hanging in a trail, noticed a strand of barbed wire across a trail and a makeshift alarm system of leaves placed over sheet metal.
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Fort Worth police sent a memo to officers saying, while their officers had not seen the devices, they should use caution.
“I’m not against the homeless, Fort Worth has some great programs to assist the homeless and help them get back on track and into productive lives,” Hamilton said. “We’re all looking for solutions. One thing we spoke about was making it uncomfortable to camp to try to help these people move in the right direction to where the help is.”
