A Washington-based nonprofit homeless advocacy group has named Dallas as the "meanest" city in Texas and the sixth meanest in the nation.

The National Coalition for the Homeless cited city officials' outlawing the removal of a shopping cart from store property and sweeps to disperse homeless camps.

It also cited proposals to ticket donors to panhandlers after a ban on panhandling proved to be ineffective.

The list, compiled in conjunction with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, ranks Houston right behind Dallas in seventh place nationally.

Houston was cited for what's called a "civility ordinance" to bar persons from sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

San Antonio comes in at eleventh for new ordinances that target aggressive panhandling, sleeping in public, urinating in public and camping or sleeping in vehicles without licenses.

Austin weighs in at 15th for proposed bans on public sleeping, panhandling and loitering.

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