More than a third of our population lives below the poverty level and many are seen homeless in the streets of Laredo, but according to the Homeless Coalition Laredo has no place to give them the help they need.

They also say homeless need to be respected and treated fairly.

Our Noraida Negron has the story.

Over a month ago we saw the city of Laredo kicking these homeless people out of surrounding businesses.

They also threw away many of their personal belongings.

Since then the homeless coalition and other community agencies say they have been working with the city to address the problem correctly.

Jose Ceballos\HOMELESS COALITION " Its a matter of communication and making sure that the people that are out on the streets are treated in a dignified matter."

But our cameras caught the City Of Laredo doing the rounds again.

This time they were in a city vehicle downtown close to the Bethany House.

They were taking the grocery cart away from this lady.

According to police officers the cart had garbage inside collected by her.

Members of the Bethany House and the homeless coalition came to the lady's rescue asking authorities what was going on.

“The other stuff is just garbage, its gathering bees a whole bunch of bees."

After the city collected the cart, authorities assured us they did not take her belongings, but needed to clean up the area by orders of the city.

People from the Bethany house and others made sure the lady was ok and walked away.
“The homeless coalition and other entities like Bethany House want to stress the community that the homeless and they should be treated fairly."

Barbara Kazen\BETHANY HOUSE " Its one thing to route them out and another not be able to offer an option”

Cindy Liendo\CITY COUNCIL WOMAN " We are looking into the future, we've created a drug and alcohol commission , because we believe a lot of homeless, its because of something."

Noraida Negron Pro 8 News.

The Bethany House provides services to the homeless, including shelter.

Their emergency shelter is full to capacity and they still have around 15 people sleeping on the patio every night.