The Galveston Police Department launched a new unit on Oct. 22 dedicated to addressing homelessness on the island.
Named the “Homeless Outreach Partnership and Enforcement” (HOPE) team, the unit takes a different approach to homelessness on the island than previous ones.
Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli said the HOPE team will address issues like panhandling, while also connecting individuals experiencing homelessness with social services such as housing, treatment programs for drug addiction, and mental health resources.
"The things we’ve done in the past and the things that have been tried over and over have historically failed," Balli said. "In the past, it’s just been an effort to move people along or arrest people for vagrancy, and if I know one thing, it’s that we simply cannot arrest our way out of homelessness."
The launch of the HOPE team follows a recent effort by police to crack down on soliciting along 61st Street, one of the busiest streets in Galveston. Law enforcement also recently moved Ron Radler, who was known for selling waters on a median along 61st Street for the past 30 years, due to safety concerns and state traffic laws.
The 2026 point-in-time count identified 245 people experiencing homelessness in Galveston County, with the Galveston County Daily News citing estimates of over 500 unhoused people on the island. Balli said homelessness is a growing concern in Galveston.
The HOPE team includes one supervisor, one sergeant and three police officers, according to Balli. The program will have a $12,000 budget for the first six months, which Balli said city officials approved.
Balli said the program could help people experiencing homelessness enter into treatment programs, obtain necessary documents to work toward employment, or help someone into permanent housing. Balli said the budgeted money would be used for tasks like obtaining a driver's license or birth certificate.
"This is not a program where we’re rounding up homeless people and taking them and dropping them off in some other municipality," Balli said. "We want meaningful change. We want lasting change for these people who are vulnerable."
Balli acknowledged the limited amount of affordable housing in Galveston and said the newly formed HOPE team would need to work to find solutions.
"Houston has been largely successful in finding permanent housing for people, and I applaud them for that, but we know those same resources don’t exist here in Galveston. So, while we can look at it and applaud it and take lessons from it, we can’t necessarily rely on the same model because we don’t have the resources,” Balli said.
Balli said the HOPE team would work with organizations like the Salvation Army of Galveston County, St. Vincent’s House and the Galveston Housing Authority to help find those solutions.
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