Austin Homeless Free for All Ordinance

[ABSR 5,309]

On 4/26/2021 at 10:05 AM, crash_davis said:

too bad love doesn't make $500 million grow on trees, you stupid bitch.

'The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.'

- Margaret Thatcher

[Ghost of LL 15,531]

If I thought this vote would be close, then I'd probably vote against Prop B because I think it's completely ineffective and needlessly cruel.

But I think it's going to pass easily.  And if it's going to pass, then I want it to pass by a huge margin, because Adler and Council need to be faced with a huge vote of no-confidence over their failure on this issue.

I hear a lot of speculation that even if Prop B passes, then Council will instruct APD not to enforce it (and APD will happily comply).  I think that's playing with fire.  A politician thumbs his/her nose at the popular will expressed in a referendum at his/her own peril.  You want to see a bunch of FitLumps on Council?  That's exactly how you do it.

[Guest Lobo]

Holy shit, there's more of them?  Which one of you fuckers fed her after midnight?  'Cause I know which one of you got her wet.

[gsoda3 3,254]

we had a homeless man try to come into our house this morning.  tried our front door twice.  got it on our ring.  reported it to the police and they took down our information. i sent them the video but they were apologetic and said they couldn't do anything b/c he didn't actually try to force his way in, but that even if had forcibly broken in and got positively IDed by video that nothing would happen b/c the DA wasn't prosecuting those cases in austin.  

 

 

[Dbeasy 15,047]

I can’t vote for prop B because I live in Leander but I’m begging everyone to please go vote and tell all your friends to vote.  We ha e to get this mess under control. 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

You guys thinking proposition B isn’t gonna pass just do not understand this town and it’s NIMBY politics well enough and are thinking it won’t pass because of “dumb Libs.” Wrong. It will pass easily.  This isn’t San Francisco.

The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 

 

[Dbeasy 15,047]

13 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

If I thought this vote would be close, then I'd probably vote against Prop B because I think it's completely ineffective and needlessly cruel.

But I think it's going to pass easily.  And if it's going to pass, then I want it to pass by a huge margin, because Adler and Council need to be faced with a huge vote of no-confidence over their failure on this issue.

I hear a lot of speculation that even if Prop B passes, then Council will instruct APD not to enforce it (and APD will happily comply).  I think that's playing with fire.  A politician thumbs his/her nose at the popular will expressed in a referendum at his/her own peril.  You want to see a bunch of FitLumps on Council?  That's exactly how you do it.

Can you expand on why you would vote against it? This situation is absolutely ridiculous. We have people living in medians and under overpasses for three years or longer with no ramifications whatsoever. How in any universe is that acceptable?

[Dbeasy 15,047]

2 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

You guys thinking proposition B isn’t gonna pass just do not understand this town and it’s NIMBY politics well enough and are thinking it won’t pass because of “dumb Libs.” Wrong. It will pass easily.  This isn’t San Francisco.

The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 

 

I’m really confused. Why would fitlump tell APD to ignore it?

[bschoolprof 6,252]

1 minute ago, JimmyJames said:

You guys thinking proposition B isn’t gonna pass just do not understand this town and it’s NIMBY politics well enough and are thinking it won’t pass because of “dumb Libs.” Wrong. It will pass easily.  This isn’t San Francisco.

The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 

 

Fitlump won't tell APD to not enforce it . . Gregario and Cabo Steve and their ilk will. 

But, there's a decent chance the lege bans public camping statewide. If so, local foot-dragging will be mitigated.  

[JimmyJames 12,271]

The camping ban never should have been lifted in the first place. That was totally idiotic but par for the course with Austin city government. Before that you still had plenty of people camping in spots but since it was manageable it was basically ignored. Now it is out of control. 

[JimmyJames 12,271]

2 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I’m really confused. Why would fitlump tell APD to ignore it?

Didn’t really mean her specifically. Just using her as an example of the kind of government we have. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by JimmyJames

[demos 3,002]

The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 
 

Then we burn it all down (if the homeless camp fires don’t do it first)

[Lerka Lerka 1,086]

17 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

we had a homeless man try to come into our house this morning.  tried our front door twice.  got it on our ring.  reported it to the police and they took down our information. i sent them the video but they were apologetic and said they couldn't do anything b/c he didn't actually try to force his way in, but that even if had forcibly broken in and got positively IDed by video that nothing would happen b/c the DA wasn't prosecuting those cases in austin.  

 

 

Glad it was locked. That’s some bullshit. 

[Hate 20,108]

22 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

we had a homeless man try to come into our house this morning.  tried our front door twice.  got it on our ring.  reported it to the police and they took down our information. i sent them the video but they were apologetic and said they couldn't do anything b/c he didn't actually try to force his way in, but that even if had forcibly broken in and got positively IDed by video that nothing would happen b/c the DA wasn't prosecuting those cases in austin.  

 

 

This makes me ragey and it wasn't even my house.  Fuck the COA.  I'm never been so happy to have moved from such a shithole and the people that enable it. 

[mchookem 16,327]

38 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

You guys thinking proposition B isn’t gonna pass just do not understand this town and it’s NIMBY politics well enough and are thinking it won’t pass because of “dumb Libs.” Wrong. It will pass easily.  This isn’t San Francisco.

The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 

 

i mean, yeah, just listen to the lady in the video: "every time i have to pick up human shit, my liberalness goes down a notch."

Prop B is passing. what good it will do based on our leaders, we'll see.

 

ETA: i wouldn't live anywhere else in this state. if Austin's a shithole, it's the best shithole in a state full of shitholes lol.

Edited April 27, 2021 by mchookem

[JimmyJames 12,271]

11 minutes ago, Hate said:

This makes me ragey and it wasn't even my house.  Fuck the COA.  I'm never been so happy to have moved from such a shithole and the people that enable it. 

Austin is not a shithole dumbass. Have you really ever lived here? I doubt it. 150 people a day move here and it’s not because it’s a “shithole.” 

[ChiTownDoc 21,152]

22 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

Austin is not a shithole dumbass. Have you really ever lived here? I doubt it. 150 people a day move here and it’s not because it’s a “shithole.” 

But those 150 people are slowly but surely tipping the scale towards shithole.  

[Guest Lobo]

9 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

But those 150 people are slowly but surely tipping the scale towards shithole.  

Listen to this guy, he's pre-med...and from Oklahoma.  

One nice thing about the shithole optics is that we had some family in town recently.  They stayed at my cousin's in Dripping Springs but have long talked about moving to Austin.  And we don't want them around our children because the mom has a lot of mental issues.  So I told them how expensive Austin was getting and then also drove them down Cesar Chavez Street and also down Ben White between Ih-35 and 360.  Between that and talk of the next drought, I think we're save from them moving here for another 5 years. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Lobo

[Homercles 10,205]

36 minutes ago, mchookem said:

i mean, yeah, just listen to the lady in the video: "every time i have to pick up human shit, my liberalness goes down a notch."

Prop B is passing. what good it will do based on our leaders, we'll see.

 

ETA: i wouldn't live anywhere else in this state. if Austin's a shithole, it's the best shithole in a state full of shitholes lol.

Honestly your political leanings shouldn’t matter...several more liberal folks here think it was a dumbass idea to remove the ban in the first place.  You can be a compassionate realist and Dr Phil it with “how’s that working out for ya”.  Obviously what we are doing isn’t working.  There has to be a balance between being needlessly cruel and turning the city into an unsanitary, unsafe, uncomfortable tent city.  

[ChiTownDoc 21,152]

2 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Listen to this guy, he's pre-med...and from Oklahoma.  

Doesn’t the Oklahoma part make me an expert on shitholes?  And I left - that proves I have a brain, however small and smooth it may be...

[Guest Lobo]

I know Doc, that was the joke.  You know a shithole when you see one.  The "pre-med" thing was from "Animal House" where the guy is supposed to be an expert.  

And now you live in my old hometown and share many of my same socio-political beliefs.  I just want to be held, okay?  

[gmr548 16,576]

If I thought this vote would be close, then I'd probably vote against Prop B because I think it's completely ineffective and needlessly cruel.
But I think it's going to pass easily.  And if it's going to pass, then I want it to pass by a huge margin, because Adler and Council need to be faced with a huge vote of no-confidence over their failure on this issue.
I hear a lot of speculation that even if Prop B passes, then Council will instruct APD not to enforce it (and APD will happily comply).  I think that's playing with fire.  A politician thumbs his/her nose at the popular will expressed in a referendum at his/her own peril.  You want to see a bunch of FitLumps on Council?  That's exactly how you do it.

Yeah, this is more or less where I’m at, though I moved out of Austin last year. No one wants people camping. But criminalizing homelessness just punishes homeless people for the city/state/nation’s failure. It won’t do anything to fix the problem, just sweep it back under the rug, throw some homeless folks in jail, and let everyone else ignore it.

I think the issue and said failures should be visible as possible. However I fully expect prop B to pass in a not particularly close election.

[ChiTownDoc 21,152]

1 minute ago, Lobo said:

I know Doc, that was the joke.  You know a shithole when you see one.  The "pre-med" thing was from "Animal House" where the guy is supposed to be an expert.  

And now you live in my old hometown and share many of my same socio-political beliefs.  I just want to be held, okay?  

Haha, you’re a good guy.  I just want to use my background to opine on this hot mess.  
Good luck.  I still love Austin and my family there goes back beyond my lifetime.  I really hope it’s doesn’t get to SF levels.  SF is so bad I don’t even like visiting now, and can’t even imagine living there - for free.  

[gmr548 16,576]

Can you expand on why you would vote against it? This situation is absolutely ridiculous. We have people living in medians and under overpasses for three years or longer with no ramifications whatsoever. How in any universe is that acceptable?

I don’t think anyone finds the status quo acceptable, but prop B isn’t a solution. It doesn’t offer an alternative, just seeeps it under the rug. I can see both sides though. People that live and work in areas with large camps have legit health and safety concerns.

You guys thinking proposition B isn’t gonna pass just do not understand this town and it’s NIMBY politics well enough and are thinking it won’t pass because of “dumb Libs.” Wrong. It will pass easily.  This isn’t San Francisco.
The bigger worry is our dumbass city council full of fit lumps telling APD to ignore it which they probably will for the most part. Then what? 
 
 

This. Austin has a lot of people that talk the talk on liberalism/progressivism, but when push comes to shove, they’ll vote their class interest. This won’t be close.

[GRHorn 105]

9 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Doesn’t the Oklahoma part make me an expert on shitholes?  And I left - that proves I have a brain, however small and smooth it may be...

 

[LABEVO 928]

Voted yesterday in north central (around airport and 183). 
 

line to vote was 45 mins and mix of ages. 
 

Im concerned that it will be close with prop B

[4th&Five 41,525]

10 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Yeah, this is more or less where I’m at, though I moved out of Austin last year. No one wants people camping. But criminalizing homelessness just punishes homeless people for the city/state/nation’s failure. It won’t do anything to fix the problem, just sweep it back under the rug, throw some homeless folks in jail, and let everyone else ignore it.

I think the issue and said failures should be visible as possible. However I fully expect prop B to pass in a not particularly close election.

This was my feeling when they got rid of the ban in the first place.  I thought the visiblity would force the city/state to you know...actually fucking do something. I was way off.

Twitter is by no means a scientific poll but based on my reading on there the last few days I expect the vote to be close as well.

Edited April 27, 2021 by 4th&Five

[Dbeasy 15,047]

6 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

I don’t think anyone finds the status quo acceptable, but prop B isn’t a solution. It doesn’t offer an alternative, just seeeps it under the rug. I can see both sides though. People that live and work in areas with large camps have legit health and safety concerns.
 

It doesn’t sweep it under the rug. The current status quo sweeps it under the rug. It provides a tool to move people who shouldn’t be living in these public locations. This proposition isn’t meant to solve every homeless issue. The are hundreds of cities around the country that don’t have the homeless problem Austin does. That is because of how Austin has chosen to deal with it vs other cities  

And the current homeless plan to spend $500m for housing 2,000 is a joke of a plan too. 

[David Dennison 18,854]

So, once this passes, then what.

It's not like the status quo ante was much better.

[LABEVO 928]

4 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

So, once this passes, then what.

It's not like the status quo ante was much better.

Edited April 27, 2021 by LABEVO

[Hate 20,108]

Austin is not a shithole dumbass. Have you really ever lived here? I doubt it. 150 people a day move here and it’s not because it’s a “shithole.” 

Yes, I have lived there and it was a great place to live. For the first several years after I moved, I wanted to move back ASAP. My wife and I had planned for that to be our retirement home. But after seeing what has happened to that place in the last 14 years since I moved, there is a zero percent chance I’ll ever live in Austin again. I went a year without work and didn’t even apply for any jobs in Austin because of the bullshit there. Y’all can have it.

[David Dennison 18,854]

3 minutes ago, LABEVO said:

Then what?

[Deej 76,759]

46 minutes ago, Lobo said:

the mom has a lot of mental issues.  

So you told her how expensive it is to live here, then gave her a tour of the free camping areas?

Uh-oh.

 

[Ghost of LL 15,531]

1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

Can you expand on why you would vote against it? This situation is absolutely ridiculous. We have people living in medians and under overpasses for three years or longer with no ramifications whatsoever. How in any universe is that acceptable?

A couple reasons:

1) It's ineffective.  There are homeless people in our city and in our state.  This does nothing to address that.

This is fundamentally a state issue.  On the last page, @Eskimohorn had a pretty fair rundown of the different types of homeless people.  And dealing with all of them is a state issue.  For the mentally ill/addicted, we need a state hospital.  For runaways, we need a functioning foster-care system.  The state provides none of these things.  It's no surprise that the state's cities are faced with a homeless crisis.

Prop B doesn't do anything to mitigate that crisis.  At best, it sweeps it under the rug.  But I don't think it'll do that effectively.

2) It's cruel.  Among the categories of homeless is short-term homeless who are still working or who are in between jobs.  Tossing them in jail and giving them a criminal record is not a good way to get them out of homelessness.  Imposing fines they can't pay is just a Kafkaesque show.

You're criminalizing poverty.  You're not treating it or dealing with it in any constructive way.  You're criminalizing it.  And I think that's abysmal.

3) It may do more harm than good.  It's like a balloon.  If you push down on the center, all the air will go to the sides.  And that's what we'll see again--the homeless will retreat to the greenbelts and some other places where they're out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

And I suppose that's great for the people who only care about the homeless insofar as they want to avoid seeing them.  But by pushing them deeper into the shadows, you may well increase their criminality.  And that's not an ideal outcome.

[Guest Lobo]

18 minutes ago, Deej said:

So you told her how expensive it is to live here, then gave her a tour of the free camping areas?

Uh-oh.

 

https://i.imgur.com/x6CPGwR.gif

 

[Cajun 11,705]

3 hours ago, demos said:

Cabo steve is worried

Man, just think how much time Steve wasted on tweeting this that he coulda been spent grabbing dudes asses at Cabo Wabo.

[Guest Lobo]

Steve's a lot of things, but swinging for the other team is not one of them.  NTTAWWT. 

He has, however, been grossly inappropriate with females both before and after his time as Mayor.  

[washparkhorn 9,939]

1 hour ago, Homercles said:

There has to be a balance between being needlessly cruel and turning the city into an unsanitary, unsafe, uncomfortable tent city.  

It is not a binary choice. There are dozens of options.

With housing precarity on the rise in Austin for current residents - and the area growing - more current residents of Austin will be enter the vulnerable zone where homelessness becomes a reality for people thought of as regular Austin folk. 

An efficient Austin government would be one preparing for more homelessness with resources to prevent the descent into homelessness - and to prevent the physical and mental harm that comes from a human living in those conditions.

A little bit of prevention goes a long way with homelessness. 

Good luck. And remember the Golden Rule.

[ChickenSandwich 9,833]

2 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

we had a homeless man try to come into our house this morning.  tried our front door twice.  got it on our ring.  reported it to the police and they took down our information. i sent them the video but they were apologetic and said they couldn't do anything b/c he didn't actually try to force his way in, but that even if had forcibly broken in and got positively IDed by video that nothing would happen b/c the DA wasn't prosecuting those cases in austin.  

 

 

Have video as well of another who came in my garage before I ran him off.  Police said sorry, nothing we can do.

[Dbeasy 15,047]

On 4/26/2021 at 12:42 PM, Eskimohorn said:

Thats because homelessness is multifaceted and national, and less of a city issue. If Austin had the best plan, you would never know it because we would continue to attract homeless regionally.

But which homeless issue is COA gonna solve?

Evicted families
Runaways
Foster Kids/Abandoned/Termed Foster Kids
Mentally ill
Addicts
Travelers/Hobos

There’s overlap in these groups, but the perception that Austin is a haven for travelers and runaways became a growing reality when tent cities became established, tolerated, and catered to.

The result is that we have attracted more longterm homeless populations.

surely by now with all of the homeless organizations in Austin, we should have a pretty darn good list of the number and category. Can someone point me to that list? Given that is the first place a homeless plan needs to begin, I'm sure it will shed quite a bit of light on the categories and quantities.  

[dcar00 14,181]

9 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

surely by now with all of the homeless organizations in Austin, we should have a pretty darn good list of the number and category. Can someone point me to that list? Given that is the first place a homeless plan needs to begin, I'm sure it will shed quite a bit of light on the categories and quantities.  

there are only 2 

evicted families(probably a reasonably small number)

mentally ill

[Biff Tannen 45,676]

4 hours ago, Steel Shank said:

Got a news flash for you, Stevie - there's going to be more than a few Dems voting for Prop B.

Yep.  I'm one of em.

[Biff Tannen 45,676]

2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

Then what?

There are people that get paid to come up with ideas and deal with these issues.  They should do their jobs.  Allowing public camping anywhere was a complete abdication of duty.

[Cajun 11,705]

2 hours ago, Lobo said:

Steve's a lot of things, but swinging for the other team is not one of them.  NTTAWWT. 

He has, however, been grossly inappropriate with females both before and after his time as Mayor.  

Hmmmm, I heard otherwise, but my sources are usually drunk, so...

[dcar00 14,181]

5 minutes ago, Cajun said:

Hmmmm, I heard otherwise, but my sources are usually drunk, so...

why not both?

[Cajun 11,705]

2 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

why not both?

 

[Ghost of LL 15,531]

3 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

It is not a binary choice. There are dozens of options.

With housing precarity on the rise in Austin for current residents - and the area growing - more current residents of Austin will be enter the vulnerable zone where homelessness becomes a reality for people thought of as regular Austin folk. 

An efficient Austin government would be one preparing for more homelessness with resources to prevent the descent into homelessness - and to prevent the physical and mental harm that comes from a human living in those conditions.

A little bit of prevention goes a long way with homelessness. 

Good luck. And remember the Golden Rule.

I agree with this completely.

Unfortunately, with its policy failures, Council has offered us only this binary choice.

I'm really pissed at Council over this, and I hope they get it through their collective skulls that the imminent success of Prop B cannot be read as anything other than a wholesale rejection of their failure of action on this issue.

[Chooky 13,307]

3 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

Good luck. And remember the Golden Rule.

That it's inappropriate to celebrate Prop B passage by taking a shit in a KFC bucket?

[Guest Lobo]

1 hour ago, Cajun said:

 

"Bad news, traffic's getting thicker."

"And Stevie's getting larger!" 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Lobo

[JimmyJames 12,271]

2 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

There are people that get paid to come up with ideas and deal with these issues.  They should do their jobs.  Allowing public camping anywhere was a complete abdication of duty.

This. The city council got rid of the ban two years ago or so and what happened next was entirely predictable and this proposition coming along in response to what happened next was entirely predictable too and ultimately nothing got solved and the problem got much worse. 
 

Hopefully at least Adler and some others made some money along the way though. Cretins.