Austin council weighs how to house homeless
In wake of camping ban, officials consider city-authorized encampments as possible next step until longer-term plan in place
AUSTIN —Among the arguments made in favor of reinstating Austin’s homeless camping ban was the idea that doing so might inspire city leadership to finally accelerate efforts to get people off the streets.
There might have been truth to that line of thinking — as less than 48 hours after voters on Saturday opted overwhelmingly to reinstate criminal penalties for camping on public property, a new but controversial plan was being floated.
Council Member Kathie Tovo authored a proposal to create city-authorized encampments that could be used lawfully by people experiencing homelessness.
Tovo published the proposal Monday, earning praise on social media from voters who had called for a plan like that one ever since the City Council canceled camping penalties in 2019. Tovo’s proposal picked up four co-sponsors, including Mayor Steve Adler, suggesting it will pass easily when the council takes it up Thursday.
Tovo’s proposal is at odds with a recommendation city staffers made two years ago in opposition to city-sanctioned encampments. The staff concerns were that the encampments would be expensive to maintain and difficult to close unless residents are moved into other housing options. Instead, city leaders decided to focus on acquiring hotels and motels to convert into housing. To date, they’ve purchased four.
Tovo said she still has faith in the hotel-motel plan, but said sanctioned campsites are a companion solution until more permanent housing units are acquired. “We have to confront the reality,” Tovo said. “Of course, now I believe this community has confronted the reality we don’t have enough safe and stable housing opportunities for everyone who needs one.”
Starting May 11, camping in public will be prohibited and violators will be subject to a Class C misdemeanor.
It’s not clear where these people might go, as shelters are at capacity. The city says it is evaluating how to best enforce the ban.
Proponents of reinstating the ban said that the City Council not only made a mistake by repealing the penalties, but made things worse by then failing to come up with a solution to get people out of tents and off the streets.
Under Tovo’s plan, the city manager’s office would identify publicly owned land or land within the city limits owned by community partners that would accommodate the encampments or tiny home structures to serve as temporary housing. Tovo said she could see the city opening multiple encampments, perhaps one in each of the 10 council districts.
The city manager’s office is being tasked with presenting a budget for lighting, water, restrooms, showers, storage and security.
The first deadline is May 14, when the city manager would report back on best practices for designated campsites.
“There are some very real and very rational concerns about them,” Tovo said. “When you compare it to permanent supporting housing options, obviously it’s not as humane, as safe, as healthy, as having a real housing unit.”
This would not be the first sanctioned campsite in Austin. A state-owned campsite in Southeast Austin, commonly called Camp Esperanza, has been in operation since 2019. It accommodates 150-175 residents, who have been staying in Texas Department of Transportation garage spaces but are transitioning to 10by-12 shelters that are being constructed.
The campsite is operated by the Other Ones Foundation. Chris Baker, the foundation’s director, said he hopes the city requests his input on how best to establish an encampment of their own.
“We do really need to focus on permanent housing solutions as much as possible,” Baker said. “With that being said, the immediate need we’re up against now is for places to camp.”
This would be the fourth plan the city has pursued to address the homelessness crisis. In addition to the hotel-motel strategy, the council also has agreed to connect individuals living unsheltered in four high-traffic areas to housing under the HEAL initiative — Homeless Encampment Assistance Link. The first phase is to be completed by August.
City officials recently held a homelessness summit with community leaders and activists to develop a longer-term housing plan. The summit set a goal of adding 3,000 housing units in the next three years at a total cost of $250 million. The first 100 units are to be acquired by June.