Since 2017, the impact, fairness, and efficacy of Austin’s ordinances governing homelessness have all been up for debate. In 2018, the spotlight shone even brighter on the issue when a city audit said homeless ordinances act as barriers to people finding or retaining work, and ultimately to exiting homelessness permanently.
This year, the City of Austin appears poised to make changes, but those changes won’t come as soon as expected.
On Tuesday, the Austin City Council’s work session was dominated by homelessness, specifically whether or not the rules regulating panhandling, camping in public, and sitting or lying in public should be repealed or amended. But after quite a bit of discussion, city leaders came to the conclusion that there has not yet been enough discussion, nor public engagement, and the decision was made to pushback the vote to a later date.
Mayor Steve Adler said neither side of the debate fully grasps the crux of the issue.
“We have a community that is really, really confused,” Adler said. “And they’re confused because they don’t understand why they’re seeing more tents now. They’re confused because the issue, the challenge seems to be growing anecdotally to them, almost exponentially.”
Council member Greg Casar made the argument that rhetoric has watered down people’s understanding of the council’s efforts.
“Folks are saying that this would allow people to be aggressive, or allow people to break public intoxication laws, and it’s just not doing any of those things,” said Casar.
Council member Delia Garza began to cry as she expressed her support for repealing the ordinance. She told the story of a discussion she had recently with her 4-year-old child about homelessness.
“It was really, you know — to me, to explain to her that this person was there because they didn’t have a home over their head, and to see her face and how she kind of understood that and how it affected her — it affected me. We’re having to explain to our children that we have people in our community that don’t have homes. And, I think this is a way that government can do good and breakdown these barriers to people trying to get out of the situation,” Garza said.
And that is another part of the problem, according to Mayor Adler.
“Part of the confusion, I think, that exists in the community is the lack of understanding that we’re actually doing something. People want to know that they, and for them, their government, is actually doing something,” said Adler. “I think that people need to be able to see that. There’s also questions about the efficacy of what we’re doing. Are what we’re doing really working when the community still sees the challenge?”
Amid it all, there appears to be a broad, growing support across the dais for a repeal, or at the very least, an amendment. Adler told the Todd and Don Show last week that he would likely not vote in favor of the repeal, however it’s unclear if that is his stance currently.
The vote will now be held on June 20. The council said Tuesday it does not want to drag the issue out beyond that date.
