Montgomery County commissioners are looking to boost security for its parking garage downtown after staff complaints of people urinating and defecating in the elevators.
The parking garage at 511 N. Main St. is for county employees and for public parking.
Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said employees also have voiced safety concerns during evening hours.
“Evidently at night it can be dangerous walking to the parking garage,” Noack said during the court’s meeting Tuesday. “There are some people who don’t have homes and they like to use the elevator as a bathroom, or even sleep in there. It’s just not safe.”
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Jason Millsaps, executive director of the county office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said the problem in the garage has been an ongoing issue.
Conroe Police Department has increased patrol in downtown to help with the situation.
“It’s an issue,” Millsaps said.
Information Technology Director Bobby Powell said one solution is to provide badge access to elevators. He added it would be inexpensive to set that system up. However, stairwells are a concern since they can not be locked per fire codes.
A 2020 study by the city of Conroe showed homelessness “overwhelmingly” chosen as the number one concern by downtown business owners and it was also the most often mentioned as a dislike about downtown.
In fact, 92 percent of the 76 surveys received chose homelessness as the biggest concern. Like the business owners, people without homes also has been a concern for the city council.
In 2019, the city Conroe donated five acres of land to Conroe-based nonprofit Compassion United, an organization that is focused on helping the homeless, to help in developing a campus for people experiencing homelessness and move the Conroe House of Prayer out of downtown. The House of Prayer is now off Foster Drive.
Millsaps said the staff would look at some additional options to address the issue.
“We will get a plan together and get back with you,” Millsaps said.
