Dallas (WBAP/KLIF News) – Dallas closed a section of a homeless camp underneath Interstate 45 Tuesday morning. The city hopes to shut down “Tent City” entirely by next week.
“If you’ve been living like this for five years and someone comes and takes yours, how would you feel?” one resident said after crews blocked off the northernmost section of the camp. “They’re doing it gently, though, one by one.”
Dallas City Council decided to shut down “Tent City” after receiving a report that the camp had tripled in size over the past year. The same report showed that 85 percent of the people staying in the camp had spent time in jail; half suffer from some type of mental illness.
“All of them won’t be able to go. That’s the sad part,” says Carolyn Hale, a volunteer who brings meals to people staying in tents. “Some are still going to be left behind.”
Hale says hundreds of people routinely stay in “Tent City.” More than 200 tents line the underpass for three blocks south of Interstate 30.
The council has been working with non-profits to find a place for people who had been staying under the overpass. The council had considered the old Parkland Hospital site or Dawson State Jail as temporary shelters.
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