Screenshot/Harris County Commissioners Court
Harris County Commissioners Court, March 27, 2025.
County commissioners next week will consider adopting restrictions on panhandling in unincorporated areas of Harris County.
The motion, if approved by commissioners, will direct the county attorney’s office to work with court offices to draft an ordinance regulating roadside panhandling and vending activities, according to county documents.
Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who introduced the proposal during commissioners court last week, said it’s the most common issue he hears from residents in his precinct, which covers suburbs like Cypress, Spring and Atascocita.
“There is clearly more people living in unincorporated Harris County than live in the city of Houston,” he said. “So, whatever you think panhandling is in terms of being a problem in the city of Houston, is just a big problem at least in the unincorporated area.”
Talks of panhandling restrictions come on the heels of a new state law that would give Harris County commissioners the chance to implement restrictions on food vendors and solicitations that occur on public highways, parking lots and right-of-ways of public roads in unincorporated areas.
The proposal in front of commissioners next week would prohibit panhandling and vending on public road medians. It would also designate safe zones for solicitations and enforce provisions that prioritize warnings and referrals to social services for people experiencing homelessness.
Commissioners court documents say the ordinance aims to balance public safety concerns with humanitarian considerations by creating a framework that “respects individual rights and support vulnerable populations.”
“I get as many calls on this issue as almost anything else that happens in precinct three,” Ramsey said. “So, this is a proposal to try to begin to address this very real issue within unincorporated Harris County.”
The potential restrictions come months after Houston’s city council voted to approve a rule prohibiting sitting, standing and walking on median strips on divided roadways in city limits. Councilmembers at the time said the rule doesn’t specifically prohibit panhandling, but it does prevent it on narrow medians.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire speculated that some panhandlers earn $200 to $300 a day while also collecting Supplemental Security Income benefits from the federal government. He said that the new city enforcement is reasonable because some panhandlers “are becoming more aggressive.”
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The city of Dallas in 2023 was sued over a similar ordinance that criminalized walking or standing on certain medians. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that the ordinance was meant to specifically target panhandling.
In response, a federal judge ruled that the city should be allowed to enforce the ordinance, siding with the city’s arguments that such an ordinance ensures pedestrian safety.