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Homelessness issue addressed during Flour Bluff town hall meeting

According to City Manager Peter Zanoni, the new city budget will help target the issue with the addition of a 3-person team.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni has been on the job now for 5 months and wants to make sure residents are in the 'know' when it comes to all the changes happening in the city.

Zanoni was in Flour Bluff on Monday night for a town hall meeting.

One of the biggest problems that was brought up several times at the meeting was the issue of homelessness.

"There's been a lot of crime associated with the homeless. Unfortunately there are so many out there, some of them are bad circumstances. There are those out there who don't want to work, bad habits to support.  One tried to steal my husband's suburban two months ago. They didn't get away with it," resident Rena Rittgers said. 

Rittgers was one of several people who filled Grace Community Church in Flour Bluff to listen to Zanoni's update on the issue.

According to Zanoni, homelessness is a community problem. Until Oct. 1, the city did not have a staff person focused on addressing the issue, but the new budget changes that.

"With this budget, I re-directed resources to add a three-person team to focus on homelessness and workforce housing. Within the next couple of days we'll have those staff members in place," Zanoni said.

Zanoni said in addition to the team, he will be meeting with the 35-70 homelessness providers in the city to see how they can work together to address the issue.

Zanoni also talked about the $128 million of the 2019 budget that will go to street repair and reconstruction. Zanoni also celebrated that a new collective bargaining agreement was reached with the Corpus Christi Police Officers Association.

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