TYLER, Texas — According to the Texas Homeless Network, there are over 7,000 homeless people in the Lone Star State.
In East Texas, the homeless population hasn’t shrunk since SB 1925 was signed into law.
That law was passed in 2021 with the goal of shrinking the homeless population across the state. In the East Texas region, advocates say the homeless population is the same two years later.
Tyler's homeless population is centered along Valentine Str. in the northeast part of the city under the Gentry Bridge. For many people there, it’s the only home they have. Many community members are rallying behind them to get them off streets and the message they want to embody is ‘friends helping friends.’
“Tyler definitely has one of the larger homeless populations compared to other cities in East Texas," said the manager of Hiway 80 Rescue Mission in Tyler, Walter Merop.
Nearly 200 people in Tyler were homeless in 2021, according to East Texas Human Needs Network.
"We seem to be a hub where homeless come through here quite often," Merop said.
SB1925 is now a law that bans people from camping out in public places. But advocates say it hasn’t had much of an impact in our area.
"Those numbers have stayed consistent over the last year – two years," Merop said.
The Hiway 80 Rescue Mission in Tyler serves nearly 100 people per day -- many who come in because they have nowhere else to go -- like Shannon Brookes.
"I just went through some bad times in life," Brookes said. "Drug abuse and things like that. I had no way of getting away from it. Couldn’t get away from it."
Now Brookes is a programmer with Hiway 80, helping others get back on their feet.
“It brought me to where I am today," Brookes said. "[It] saved my life."