Homeless man bathing at Dallas couple’s spigot raises questions of compassion, security

By Marvin Hurst

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    DALLAS, Texas (KTVT) — A North Texas couple wasn’t sure what to do after finding a homeless man using their outside spigot to shower. It wound up sparking community debates about compassion and boundaries.

Kelvin Simpson said he had to develop a system to survive on the streets of Dallas. He said he’s been experiencing homelessness for two years.

“Asking people for help sometimes is not easy, but you got to be humble with it,” Simpson said. “You can’t be aggressive.

CBS News Texas saw him stretched out on the curb of a convenience store in The Cedars, taking a breather during the hustle to get his next meal. The 53-year-old said that unsheltered people find areas that cater to their needs, routines that work for survival, and generosity in the form of food and drink.

Just about any street could be home, which means all of it could be both bedroom and bathroom.

“When it comes to using the restroom, either you go behind the dumpster to pee or you hide in the bushes to boom boom,” he said. “When it comes to taking a shower, you have to find some water somewhere. Mostly, I use baby wipes or hand sanitizers to clean myself up.”

Fountains, reservoirs, sprinklers, garden hoses, and even spigots on homes are used to clean up. Simpson said he’s seen unauthorized use.

“That’s not right. It’s not fair,” he said. ” Because they still got to pay the water bill, and you never ask them.”

That was the experience for a couple who are fairly new to The Cedars. The husband and wife consciously made room for what happened wherever they had lived, including Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Texas.

According to the wife, alerts for their surveillance camera kept going off just before 4 p.m. on August 19. When she checked it out, there was a man using their spigot to wash off by the garage.

“First, I was like, ‘whoa, that’s alarming,'” she said. “And I sat there and processed.”

The man, whom the couple assessed to be experiencing homelessness, got down to his underwear shorts and washed his clothes in their water. In the video, he can be seen walking as he continues his regimen with a large bottle of liquor on top of trash cans and even using a shaving razor. The couple decided it was such a hot day that they’d let him use the water to cool off and stay clean.

“If this poor man, he’s trying to maintain his health, stay clean,” the wife said. “I cannot imagine being in that situation, and my heart hurts for people like that. So we’re just something we’re going to monitor.”

On August 23, video surveillance from the couple shows he came back. In the video, the man walks up to the garage, moves the garbage can out of the way, and even seems to look directly at the camera. The video shows him walking out of frame. The couple said he went to relieve himself, came back, and did the unthinkable.

“While we were monitoring one of the events from a balcony, a little girl directly across the street noticed us and started talking to us while he was naked,” the husband said.

According to the wife, her husband said, “I understand your circumstances. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but we have children in and around this neighborhood, you know—appreciate it if you refrain from doing this here.’

She said there was no pushback from the man who had been using their spigot. The man apologized, and the wife said he parted the scene with, “The devil is going to get you.”

The man in the video faces no criminal charges for the images the couple shared with CBS News Texas.

The debate over helping homeless individuals Looking for advice and community feedback, the wife posted the video on Ring and the NextDoor App. She received some advice, but to her surprise, there was a rush to criticize their humanity due to the blazing heat and the needs of those experiencing homelessness.

Bob Sweeney, the Executive Director for Dallas Life, a homeless shelter in the metroplex, has a comment to add to the list of those criticizing the couple.

“What if I were to say, ‘I can’t believe you don’t open your door right now and let them have the extra bed in your building or your apartment,'” Sweeney said. “You would say, ‘well, I’m not gonna let them live with me.’ Well, then stop expecting me to enable them.”

Sweeney believes that sponsoring a one-time meal or using a spigot without permission is more of an enabler than an act of assistance.

“I would say to them, ‘if you think you have the right to go up and just use something that doesn’t belong to you, you have a misunderstanding of the way society works,'” he said. “Why don’t you become a contributing member of society so you live in a place where you are paying your way and thus earning the right to use your own water?”

The one-time gift, Sweeney said, does not get the person into the system where they can truly be delivered from experiencing homelessness.

“But that doesn’t teach you how to get clean, stay clean, and earn the right to buy a soap to go with that water to remain clean,” he said. “That takes a process.”

Simpson said he’s originally from Shreveport. He said he had been to prison before and had been married three times. He said his third marriage ended when he discovered his wife had been having an affair and had drained his bank account. He said it broke him in more ways than one.

Now, he’s trying to recover from the streets of Dallas to drive trucks again.

“The blueprint is to make a decision not to drink no more, not to smoke weed,” Simpson said.

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