More Homelessness policy recommendations are coming out of Austin City Council.
Mayor Steve Adler explained, the City Council has enough consensus on a few items that, the Austin Police Department and the City Manager could start acting on them immediately. top of the four item list is making Ausitnites aware, many of the acts they complain about, like urinating and defecating in public, are still illegal and residents are encouraged to call the police, so the city can act.
Another item focuses on sanitation he said, “we’ve heard some people say that there are unsafe conditions that are happening under overpasses. Where trash or garbage are collecting, I wanted to point out to [City Manager Spencer Cronk] that we had just given alot money in the budget in order to make sure that we were taking care of sanitation in this city,” and Adler believes there doesn’t need to be any more council action made for the city manager to take care of that.
Another big item is cleaning up camping around the ARCH homeless shelter, “I said, I really wanted him to start moving in that direction, and helping the people that are there… leave there and get to better and safer places.”
You can read the Mayor’s recommendations in his original written statement below:
Colleagues (and Manager):
Thank you to my colleagues for the posts, the work being done, and initiating and participating in this
conversation concerning our city’s challenge with homelessness. I agree that Council’s prior actions, including
but not limited to the many council actions taken especially over the last few years leading to passage of items
#184 and #185 in June and reinforced with the dedication of resources as part of the recent budget vote last
month, together with the council discussion last week demonstrate a very strong consensus for some level of
ordinance clarification and corrective action following from existing laws, and would indicate that the
Manager, without any further action by council could, and I believe should do the following:
1. Make very clear to our residents that our law enforcement can and will enforce laws and ordinances
prohibiting behavior of individuals of the type that many people testified about and are writing
about in emails and on social media. It is against the law for people, for example, to urinate or
defecate in public or aggressively confront another. Prohibitions of this kind of behavior should be
enforced. Our residents should be encouraged to call 911 when they see laws being violated. They
should know if video and other evidence of violations will be considered in enforcement. Importantly,
if there are any city ordinance changes that Council needs to make, identify them for us and we’ll act.
2. Enforce our ordinances that prohibit individuals from blocking, impeding access on our streets, as
our existing ordinances provide. The Manager and Police Chief could by policy (e.g., training bulletins)
adopt interpretations of our existing ordinances so as to enforce existence, for example, of at least 4
feet clearance on sidewalks and 6 feet around entrances. While some of us might go further, it’s clear
that there’s consensus for going at least this far. If the Manager believes Council needs to make
changes to ensure our existing ordinances are enforced, he needs to let us know and we’ll act.
3. Enforce our ordinances with respect to the greatest and imminent public safety risks and public
health hazards. The Manager, working with his staff, could identify the least safe places for people to
be – perhaps, for example, camping or sleeping on a median or island too close to cars going by too
fast – and conditions where public health might be most threatened by concentrations of trash or
hazardous materials. The Manager should keep people safe from the greatest risks by posting signage
in locations deemed the most unsafe so as to provide notice to allow enforcement, and he should also
accelerate and focus additional sanitation efforts as appropriate.
4. Help the people in the area outside the ARCH move to better and safer places. The area outside the
ARCH presents concentrated issues of public safety and health that we need to address for the benefit
of ARCH clients, those that gather in that area, and the community generally. Further, we need to
foster greater hopefulness in the community by demonstrating that we know how to help people
move off our streets. Doing so around the ARCH would provide very visible proof.
Finally, the Manager and his staff, as requested by Council most recently last June, should work with the
community, service providers, and stakeholders to present an overall plan of action (short and long-term) to
end homelessness in Austin.
If the Manager acted on his own to do as described above, as supported by ordinances and resolutions already
passed and as supported in dais conversation, administratively exercising his discretion, there would seem to
be less of a need for council deliberation or action on related resolutions or ordinances over the next few
weeks and until we can hear back on recommendations for the larger plan.
Steve Adler
(Photo:Shutterstock/Stock Photo World)
