Homeless Camps Frustrate Neighbors Near New S.M. Wright Boulevard

Dallas neighbors fear homeless camps and crime compromise the new S.M. Wright Boulevard that is replacing an old freeway being demolished.

The first phase of work to complete a bypass to S.M. Wright to eliminate the so-called “Deadman’s Curve” on Texas Highway 175 has been completed.

Now the Texas Department of Transportation is working on the second phase, to construct a slower surface-level boulevard in place of the high-speed S.M. Wright Freeway that divided the neighborhood generations ago.

Resident Michael Murphy walks with great care in his neighborhood near the old freeway because of vision impairment. He’s found new homeless camps in his neighborhood impose an additional challenge.

“We got people who walk the street 24 hours, 7 days a week, hollering, screaming,” he said. “They’re not friendly at all. They’re not approachable people.”

From his front yard, resident James Price has a clear view of the new camp.

The neighbors said far more homeless people than there used to be are in the neighborhood, perhaps because the city recently ran homeless people away from other camps nearby.

“We're getting ready for our beautiful boulevard and we have a homeless camp there,” Price said. “They piling up trash and those kinds of things and it really messes up the neighborhood.”

People staying in the camps are present soliciting at corners all around the road demolition and construction zone.

The work was to provide multiple benefits to the community.

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Renderings show the slower, low-traffic surface street TxDOT is constructing now.

“The department worked for years with the community and local and state leaders to bring this to fruition,” TxDOT spokesperson Alice Rios Shaw said. “It will feature monuments, and bike paths, wide sidewalks, all of this with the community and that neighborhood in mind.”

Resident Janet Jackson said the future improvement neighbors have been expecting is being spoiled by the homeless camps.

“They bring barbecue grills and people park with their dogs and it’s just this big party,” she said. “It’s a nuisance for the neighborhood. It’s not good. It’s not safe.

The City of Dallas has more homeless solutions available these days with new programs and money to provide rapid rehousing for homeless people that accept it.

But the homeless group on S.M. Wright is using vacant private property, which the neighbors say complicates and limits the city response to these potential service recipients.

“They are aggressive. You can't say a whole lot to them. But we just want to be a normal neighborhood,” Jackson said.

TxDOT intends to complete the new boulevard by fall 2023.