Usually just after Halloween, certainly by Thanksgiving and just before Christmas, local TV News features multiple stories about the Homeless out on the cold Houston streets.
Even if the temperature is in the 60s, there will be a reporter bundled up in an overcoat and scarf bemoaning the fact that the Salvation Army and the Star of Hope Mission are out of cots, down to their last blanket, and desperate for help.
This makes it even stranger that - in spite of the extended weather coverage (when the weather actually did get brutal with temps below freezing for 48 hour or more last week) not one local channel did a story on the plight of the Homeless!
I watched coverage on three or four of the Houston stations last week, and before writing this, just to be sure, I Googled [Houston_homeless_weather] to see what I might have missed. Fox ran a story back in mid-January, and in the only story I could find that aired last week, Channel 39 led off one segment by mentioning (just in passing) that Star of Hope was distributing blankets - before moving on to a story about local Reliant Energy trucks forming a convoy to head north and help out in Oklahoma.
So, what the Heck happened to our Homeless? Did they all skip town ahead of the front? If so, where did they go?
- Did they all win the lotto and move to the Woodlands, Cinco Ranch or Williams Trace?
- Did an enterprising Coyote realize he could increase his profit margin by smuggling people both ways across the Mexican border?
- Or, in a profound gesture of gratitude and reciprocity, did the mayor on New Orleans secretly round up all of our druggies, winos and schizophrenics and stash them in the Superdome until spring?
Please believe that I am not complaining at all . I really don’t like those Endangered Homeless stories, and I certainly didn’t miss them, but I am amazed that I wasn’t subjected to a single one.
It’s supposed to drop back into the 20s Wednesday night. Let’s see of the local news mavens and weather wonks make up for lost time.
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