I grew up and lived in Houston for nearly 40 years. I worked in some pretty run down areas. 2 guys were shot to death in an attempted pawn shop robbery in the shopping center next to one building I worked in one afternoon. We heard the gunfire and couldn't figure out what it was at first. I didn't grow up in a trashy part of town, but spent plenty of time in some of them because of the work I did.
I then moved to Austin and my territories were downtown and east of I-35. We regularly had homeless people and people from the halfway house apartments down the street getting in fights on the sidewalk or wandering past the building yelling at nothing high out of their minds.
We had to call the cops on an evicted couple getting in a fight and throwing their belongings at eachother in the parking lot. My coworkers thought I was nuts walking down the street to the 7/11 to get a drink or snack now and then but the crazy people watching could be interesting and I saw a couple of awesome panhandler fights.
Austin isn't super bad as the worst parts of Houston, but it has some bad areas and the homeless encampments are getting ridiculous, like when they break out in big fires underneath overpasses.
They all have neighborhoods you absolutely don't want to be wandering around in on foot after dark.
