We don't want to give the image that it's skid row. Suggs says pressure is mounting to clean up the area, especially as the city grows and nearby neighborhoods begin to flourish. Suggs was on the task force that is now urging city council to fix up the area. After two years studying homelessness, the panel also recommends identifying and tracking homeless people and linking them to health services. Most of the homeless people I deal with, it's an issue of treatment, not housing.
Children living on the streets also concerns people monitoring the homeless population.
The task force counted 4,000 homeless people in Fort Worth. That's a 30 percent increase in three years. There is more urgency to deal with this problem because that conflicts with the efforts underway to revitalize the south end of downtown Fort Worth. City hall has some concrete proposals to look at.