Austin Homeless Free for All Ordinance

[Nonbryan 173]

So what was said in the VICE story is that  "I don't want to live in a homeless shelter and I'm going to camp no matter what is what".  Basically it's either on your sidewalk or in the wood down the street from your house.  Arrest me if you want.

[bschoolprof 6,232]

1 hour ago, Somnio said:

 

Again, this isn't about fixing homelessness. 

Letting homeless people camp out pretty much wherever they want, trashing public spaces, starting fires under bridges and around historic buildings, etc. has not allowed Adler or the city to begin to "fix" homelessness in any way.  

We've tried this silly experiment and it's failed miserably.  Time to end it.

And the "agonized" progressive in the clip who plans to vote against prop B, but hopes others vote for it, brought the lulz.  

[Guest Lobo]

Vice is usually so good at seeing the other angle to a story.  Anybody know how I can contact Meea Duerson?  I tried their website but you have to be a social media follower, I have none.  I'd like to explain to her the hundreds of millions of dollars she just glossed right over. She could have asked somebody about something other than camping bans/housing as a long-term solution instead of b-roll flyovers for 10 minutes.  

[mchookem 16,094]

'as your safety declines, so does your compassion.'

"every time i have to pick up human shit, my 'liberalness' just got lowered"

lol

i mean...yeah, pretty much 😒

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by mchookem

[gmr548 16,463]

If there's an early voting thread, my bad, but anyone have an idea on how people are turning out?  Prop B is literally the only reason I'm voting in this election.  I'm voting tomorrow.

West Austin has turned out at far higher rates. You know what that means.

[lmao 178]

This is a stupid question, but when did you guys who have lived in Austin for most of your lives notice a homeless problem? I'm in SoCal now and haven't lived in ATX going on over a decade. I don't ever remember tent cities. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by lmao

[Armybrat 40,678]

About 25 years ago I noticed the telltale shopping carts (HEB, Walmart, Target, etc) looking abandoned by wooded areas scattered here & there. Heard rumors of some homeless camps, but never saw any that were obvious. But the number of panhandlers seemed to pick up in the early 1990s.

 

[Somnio 751]

24 minutes ago, lmao said:

This is a stupid question, but when did you guys who have lived in Austin for most of your lives notice a homeless problem? I'm in SoCal now and haven't lived in ATX going on over a decade. I don't ever remember tent cities. 

There were never tent cities in Austin out in the open until the last couple of years when the Austin city council made camping in public within the city limits legal.

On May 1 Austin voters will decide if it will become illegal once again.

[DalTxHornFan 3,084]

3 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

About 25 years ago I noticed the telltale shopping carts (HEB, Walmart, Target, etc) looking abandoned by wooded areas scattered here & there. Heard rumors of some homeless camps, but never saw any that were obvious. But the number of panhandlers seemed to pick up in the early 1990s.

 

Agreed.  There were always the drag worms around campus, but I'm thinking a lot of the panhandling/homeless stuff downtown roughly coincided with the rise of that Leslie guy -- the bearded cross-dresser who set up shop at 6th and Congress.  Was that mid to late 1990s?

[Steel Shank 9,405]

40 minutes ago, lmao said:

This is a stupid question, but when did you guys who have lived in Austin for most of your lives notice a homeless problem? I'm in SoCal now and haven't lived in ATX going on over a decade. I don't ever remember tent cities. 

There was a dude that lived on the island under the railroad tressel over Town Lake. A friend and I canoed to it in 1978.

[Axle Hongsnort 208]

West Austin has turned out at far higher rates. You know what that means.

Where have you seen the turnout stats by geography?

[Guest Lobo]

Poppedcollar.gov

[atomheartbevo 89,362]

48 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

 But the number of panhandlers seemed to pick up in the early 1890s.

Fixed.

[atomheartbevo 89,362]

2 hours ago, Nonbryan said:

Basically it's either on your sidewalk or in the wood down the street from your house.  Arrest me if you want.

Speaking of arrests, don't get the bright idea to walk along Shoal Creek, rounding up as many water snakes and cottonmouths as you can find, dumping them under the bridges where you've seen people camping near the walkways, and then post about it on Facebook or Nextdoor and that it was your "organic" and "bespoke" solution, because at minimum you are facing multiple misdemeanors, but if anybody is injured, it can be turned into a fucking felony.

[mchookem 16,094]

so how long is your sentence?

Edited April 26, 2021 by mchookem

[Deej 76,510]

Adler is probably bussing in more homeless to vote against Prop B.

[Guest Lobo]

I think of Adler and Casar's corrupt practices.  And I picture that Simpsons gif that's on every other thread of this site where the old man walks in, hangs his hat, turns around, grabs his hat, and walks back out.  If I could do a digital version of that...Adler gets a homeless guy out of his tent to go vote against Prop B, guy votes and turns around to walk out but during that time Adler moved his tent city down into another district, so guy goes into tent and Adler turns him around to back out and vote at new ballot site while Adler moves his tent city again...until the homeless person has voted 10 times. 

Because remember Austin...it's not mental health issues causing that man to vote 10 times...it's a lack of hotels.  

[Biff Tannen 45,477]

1 hour ago, Somnio said:

There were never tent cities in Austin out in the open until the last couple of years when the Austin city council made camping in public within the city limits legal.

On May 1 Austin voters will decide if it will become illegal once again.

Yes 

1 hour ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Agreed.  There were always the drag worms around campus, but I'm thinking a lot of the panhandling/homeless stuff downtown roughly coincided with the rise of that Leslie guy -- the bearded cross-dresser who set up shop at 6th and Congress.  Was that mid to late 1990s?

Absolutely not. Leslie had nothing to do with any of this. 

[DalTxHornFan 3,084]

5 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yes 

Absolutely not. Leslie had nothing to do with any of this. 

Cool -- All I'm saying is that this shit has been going on for a long time.  Here's a July 1997 Austin Chronicle article referencing a 1995 camping ban:  https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1997-07-04/529210/

[4th&Five 41,457]

The timing blurs for me but we were seeing tents under Ben white before the law changed, weren’t we? I know it got worse quickly but it was already starting. 

[Biff Tannen 45,477]

13 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

The timing blurs for me but we were seeing tents under Ben white before the law changed, weren’t we? I know it got worse quickly but it was already starting. 

The allowing of “public camping” in the past few years sent shit into a massive acceleration. I lived near campus from 2000-2006 and downtown from 2007-2010 and in central Austin pretty much ever since, and nothing was even close to what is occurring now.  Granted, we have grown quite a bit in 11 years, but this is out of control. 

[Biff Tannen 45,477]

24 minutes ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Cool -- All I'm saying is that this shit has been going on for a long time.  Here's a July 1997 Austin Chronicle article referencing a 1995 camping ban:  https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1997-07-04/529210/

That was actually a really good article and shows how we used to have actual good journalism.  Not a single political skew in there that I could see, at least on one read. Also interesting and sad that we’ve been discussing the same issues for almost 30 years now and done very little. That abandoned Home Depot at St. John’s seems like an obvious stop gap, but I guess that’s not happening, from what I’ve heard. 

[Guest Lobo]

Or the ACC tower in SW Austin. 

[fattyflattie 4,636]

Man I didn’t realize y’all had it that bad.  Crazy. 

[washparkhorn 9,931]

Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in the United States:
 

Quote

 

. . . Citizens and local authorities, rather than treating homeless persons as affronts to their sensibilities and neighborhoods, should see in their presence a tragic indictment of community and government policies.

Homelessness on this scale is far from inevitable and reflects political choices to see the solution as law enforcement rather than adequate and accessible low-cost housing, medical treatment, psychological counselling and job training. . . .

 

https://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1 at pp. 12-13.

[TKthunder2 4,975]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

That was actually a really good article and shows how we used to have actual good journalism.  Not a single political skew in there that I could see, at least on one read. Also interesting and sad that we’ve been discussing the same issues for almost 30 years now and done very little. That abandoned Home Depot at St. John’s seems like an obvious stop gap, but I guess that’s not happening, from what I’ve heard. 

To fix the roof it would be around $200k so the city said they won’t do it even though it could house 100+ with very little additional overhead...but they’ll spend $9 million on another hotel that houses less than 50 in the next few months I bet.

[Cajun 11,675]

On 4/20/2021 at 3:48 PM, Wally Pryor said:

This guy, homeless?

 

 

War is hell brah.  He saw too much...

Edited April 26, 2021 by Cajun

[52-80 19,066]

just bus them all to California.  the weather's better for em anyway

[Cajun 11,675]

And then build that wall...

around the entire state of Texas.

[BurntOrange&White 39,486]

I haven't been to Austin much due to covid and usually taking the toll road around when heading to Dallas from San Antonio. I attended the spring game this past weekend and just driving through downtown was fucking disgusting. Why do city leaders think all those homeless camps are good ideas and allow them? Specifically around 6th street, a main tourist destination for people coming to Austin. 

[Biff Tannen 45,477]

1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

I haven't been to Austin much due to covid and usually taking the toll road around when heading to Dallas from San Antonio. I attended the spring game this past weekend and just driving through downtown was fucking disgusting. Why do city leaders think all those homeless camps are good ideas and allow them? Specifically around 6th street, a main tourist destination for people coming to Austin. 

This is what I just don't get.  It's not a solution.  What did they think would happen?  I really don't understand the thought process.

[TKthunder2 4,975]

29 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

I haven't been to Austin much due to covid and usually taking the toll road around when heading to Dallas from San Antonio. I attended the spring game this past weekend and just driving through downtown was fucking disgusting. Why do city leaders think all those homeless camps are good ideas and allow them? Specifically around 6th street, a main tourist destination for people coming to Austin. 

Heard on the radio that hotels are getting mad because younger people have been coming into town to go party on 6th street and instead of spending cash on the hotel, they’ve been just throwing up tents within walking distance of the bars.

[utee94 15,742]

17 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

Heard on the radio that hotels are getting mad because younger people have been coming into town to go party on 6th street and instead of spending cash on the hotel, they’ve been just throwing up tents within walking distance of the bars.

Ha, that's pretty funny if true.  Gotta admire their ingenuity.

 

 

[InkaUtexas 25,423]

I was driving on Cesar Chavez a few weeks ago. Saw a young couple completely decked out in their north face gear setting up a pretty damn nice 4 person tent. They sure as hell did not look homeless to me. 

[Armybrat 40,678]

9 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

That was actually a really good article and shows how we used to have actual good journalism.  Not a single political skew in there that I could see, at least on one read. Also interesting and sad that we’ve been discussing the same issues for almost 30 years now and done very little. That abandoned Home Depot at St. John’s seems like an obvious stop gap, but I guess that’s not happening, from what I’ve heard. 

For the past year, and especially since Prop 8 got on the ballot, most all the letters to the AAS editor have been against reinstating the camping ban. I think the AAS editors &  “journalists” are a bunch of chickenshits who are too afraid to allow any opposing view of this issue even a minimum of print space. Not to mention investigating who is profiting from the blatantly corrupt hotel purchases & expenditures.

Absolute cowards under the thumb of the Austin powerbrokers.

[crash_davis 23,078]

Ban panhandling. That will solve some of the problem. Then start cracking down on camps which are littered with stolen shit. Those leeches didn't buy all that shit, especially all the bikes. Start with those two actions and you'll drive some of the shitheads who choose homelessness as a lifestyle out of here. Who's left are maybe people with ties to Austin. I want to help those people. I ain't helping some fucking thieving shitheads who hopped on a train from Oklahoma City down here because Adler welcomed them.

Oh yea. Fuck Adler. I hope he gets testicle cancer.

[Cajun 11,675]

They enjoy the shithole Brat.  Looks nice from a high rise and from the gated communities they live in.

Just took some pals of mine from ATX out on Canyon Lake this weekend.  Funny how they were grilling me on what it's like living in SA.  Just wouldn't stop.

The most humorous part was the looks on their faces when I said, "Why do you ask?"

Edited April 26, 2021 by Cajun

[blacklab 11,841]

The line in the Vice video that cracked me up was the "There isn't enough resources" from the social worker.

$500 million is somehow not enough.

 

[Cajun 11,675]

It's never enough.  Ever.  Their apetite to be in your wallet is only rivaled by the well of excuses they dip into to keep the grift going.

But in the end, it's the morons who put 'em there year after year after year.  They're all over this board pretending not to have played their part.  Too bad for those who don't roll that way, but for those people, it's fucking glorious watching from a distance.

[crash_davis 23,078]

2 minutes ago, blacklab said:

The line in the Vice video that cracked me up was the "There isn't enough resources" from the social worker.

$500 million is somehow not enough.

 

We've budgeted $500 million. 1. I wonder how much of that money has actually been spent, and 2. I wonder how much of that spent money has actually gone to something that's made a difference. 

These assholes put up a Welcome Sign to the homeless across that nation and didn't have a fucking clue on a plan or next steps into addressing the mass of shithead leeches which would and did flock to Austin. 2 years later and we're nothing but much worse for it.

[crash_davis 23,078]

There two signs on my street in Crestview about people not needing handcuffs but homes and something something about housing as human right, vote against Prop B. 

Not surprisingly, those two houses are renters. Buy a fucking home and start paying the taxes and they'll soon realize what dipshits they are.

[Deej 76,510]

You do realize renters are paying taxes? It may be indirectly, but the landlords are passing that cost on to their tenants. 

[crash_davis 23,078]

2 minutes ago, Deej said:

You do realize renters are paying taxes? It may be indirectly, but the landlords are passing that cost on to their tenants. 

Yes but they just think it's Austin real estate prices. They are too gotdamned stupid to connect the dots.

This goes to my idea that the only people who can vote on Props paid for by Property Taxes are actual property owners.

Edited April 26, 2021 by crash_davis

[Deej 76,510]

I read an article this weekend that says groups are going out, rounding up the homeless, and taking them to polling stations to vote. 

Hopefully, Austinites are a bit more motivated for this election than usual.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Cajun said:

It's never enough.  Ever.  Their apetite to be in your wallet is only rivaled by the well of excuses they dip into to keep the grift going.

But in the end, it's the morons who put 'em there year after year after year.  They're all over this board pretending not to have played their part.  Too bad for those who don't roll that way, but for those people, it's fucking glorious watching from a distance.

Washington or Austin?

[immamac 42,492]

it don't make a shit - good luck enforcing it lol

[Cajun 11,675]

6 minutes ago, slorch said:

Washington or Austin?

Yes

[crash_davis 23,078]

3 minutes ago, immamac said:

it don't make a shit - good luck enforcing it lol

If voters pass Prop B and Adler doesn't have APD enforce, I imagine Abbott will have DPS enforce.

[Cajun 11,675]

18 minutes ago, Deej said:

You do realize renters are paying taxes? It may be indirectly, but the landlords are passing that cost on to their tenants. 

The question is, do they realize it?

Doubt it.  

But no harm, no foul for those dipshits.  Heat gets too hot, just go rent somewhere else.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, crash_davis said:

If voters pass Prop B and Adler doesn't have APD enforce, I imagine Abbott will have DPS enforce.

There's more revenue in traffic citations and DUIs...