Homeless---1, Bad Guys---0 !!!

It's true! Sometimes the butt-heads of the world do manage to lose one!

For some strange reason, one of the bad guys in Houston gave up his lawsuit against a homeless shelter! Just goes to show, even the homeless folks can catch a break once in a while...and it's about damn time!

It's called KARMA, folks, and if you aren't careful...it will come back and bite you in the ass!

HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 5, 2010, 8:26PM

In a legal U-turn, Houston lawyer Harry Arthur late Friday dropped his lawsuit against Christ Church Cathedral and its Beacon Homeless Center, an outreach effort he contended attracted panhandlers and drug users to his downtown office's neighborhood.

Arthur's decision to drop the legal case, filed in November, came just two days after he had filed an amended lawsuit that made additional claims against the Episcopal church's program, headquartered at 1212 Prairie.

Arthur had sought an injunction to close the program and $250,000 in damages.

Arthur did not return telephone calls, but the church's lawyer, Arnold Vickery, said a neighborhood advisory board consisting of property owners, church representatives and Beacon clients will be formed to “regularly share insights and mutual concerns and ... explore ways in which the operation of the Beacon can coexist in harmony.”

In a prepared statement, Vickery said Arthur's wife would be a member of the panel.

“My prayer — and expectation — is that a neighborhood advisory council will find ways for the Beacon to be a part of the solution that are ever more caring, efficient and attentive to all of God's children,” the Rev. Joe Reynolds, dean of the cathedral, said in the statement.

Reynolds declined to comment beyond his remarks in the statement, which was prepared by a public relations firm.

Vickery called the agreement a “win-win-win” resolution.

The outreach effort, which is cater-corner from Arthur's law office, serves as many as 8,100 homeless people four days a week. It offers hot meals, clothing, showers, laundry services and case management.

In his lawsuit, Arthur argued that what had “started as a good and noble idea” had grown into a danger to the health and safety of the community.

Not allowed to sleep on church property, he contended, Beacon clients slept on neighboring sites, where they urinated and defecated. The homeless played music and danced, fought and shared drugs, the lawyer said in the lawsuit.

Arthur's petition contended that the defendants ignored pleas from neighbors to take action to alleviate the problems and allowed them to grow worse. In the updated lawsuit filed this week, Arthur said an apparent client of the homeless program cursed his secretary when she told him the lawyer had left the office for the day.

Vickery described Arthur and his wife as “good Christian people.”

“I hope that once our clients at The Beacon have heard them out and vice versa our outreach mission at Christ Church can continue with renewed sensitivity to the concerns of all our neighbors,” Vickery said.

allan.turner@chron.com

Now, my friends, let's get some fresh coffee and sit in the kitchen...we can make a toast to the Good Guys!