HOMELESS CAMPING ORDINANCE UPDATE
Dear fellow Austinite -
We recently saw two new examples of the disastrous consequences of the homeless camping ordinance.
Over the weekend, five people were injured in a shooting outside the ARCH, the homeless shelter on 7th Street.
Last Thursday, a makeshift homeless camp caught fire and caused $200,000 in damage.
The homeless camping ordinance continues to harm public safety and we must reinstate the ban on camping.
Here is the latest on our effort.
We have less than a month to go!
We have JUST 27 DAYS LEFT to hit the 20,000 signed petitions to qualify for the November ballot.
As you know, we recently announced that we've hit 10,000 signatures collected!
We are halfway to the necessary 20,000 signatures from Austin residents that we must submit by July 18.
Here's our plan to get there:
With the support we have received in the past two weeks, on Friday we mailed 25,000 households a copy of the petition. We need to mail at least another 25,000 households a copy by tomorrow. The additional 25,000 households will cost $12,500.
We need to collect signatures at the polls June 29 - July 14, during the Republican and Democratic primary runoffs. We will recruit volunteers for this, but we will also need paid canvassers to ensure we have all the locations covered. This will cost $10,000 and yield at least 5,000 signatures.
We need $22,500 new dollars in the few days to get the job done.
Our proposed ordinance will reinstate the ban on camping citywide, restore the sit/lie ordinance to downtown and extend it to the UT campus, and ban panhandling at night citywide from 7pm-7am.
We want the homeless to be sheltered, not in tents. Violent crime rose at the fastest rate in five years in 2019 and we just learned that our 'unhoused homeless' population grew 45% (!) from Jan. 2019-Jan. 2020.
Once the camping ban is reinstated, our homeless community can move to the state campground which has police on site, electricity and toilets, or take advantage of new housing coming online from the city and our nonprofits.
This is an issue of public safety and public health.
We must win this battle!
The support we have seen for this effort has been extraordinary.
We've received over 600 donations, mailed over 110,000 households, sent over 100,000 text messages and over 500,000 emails, done entirely with volunteers.
There are several free ways to help:
1) Download the petition and email it to friends who are Austin residents.
2) Download the petition and collect signatures yourself and mail it in.
3) Share a message about our effort on Facebook, NextDoor, Twitter or LinkedIn.
But at this time, we mostly need additional financial support.
Many of you have already contributed. Please know our entirely volunteer-run organization is grateful for your support and generosity.
Will you contribute to our efforts?
There are two ways to give.
1) You may securely contribute here.
2) You can also make out a check to "Save Austin Now" and mail it to:
Save Austin Now
815A Brazos Street
Box 455
Austin, TX 78701
Thank you!
-Matt Mackowiak
Co-founder, Save Austin Now
> Questions? Email matt@saveaustinnow.com
> Learn more: http://www.SaveAustinNow.com