Good Monday morning -- 

Homelessness is a complicated issue.

There have been some positive developments on this challenge in the City of Austin in 2023:

• The Marshaling Yard has been a positive addition to our community.
• Camp Esperanza, which houses around 200 homeless people currently, will be expanding.
• The Salvation Army Building downtown was purchased downtown by the city and will be utilized for downtown homeless short-term shelter.
• Mayor Kirk Watson announced a review of all homeless spending with an eye toward mental health outcomes, to ensure our taxpayer funds are more efficiently spent.

However, significant problems remain and unlike many in the Homeless Industrial Complex, we will tell you what they are.

ECHO's 'Point-in-Time' study, which is conducted annually, recently estimated that our city has 6,600 homeless people here.

From the recent KTBC Fox 7 story:

Austin homeless population almost three times larger than estimates: data

FOX 7 Austin

February 14, 2024 1:01PM

New data shows a much larger homeless population in Austin than previously estimated.

According to Austin ECHO, a January 2023 point-in-time count indicated a homeless population of about 2,300 people.

The Austin Homeless Strategy office presented new data from ECHO in which the non-profit estimated in October there were about 6,600 homeless people in the city.

Only 1,100 were sheltered, meaning more than 5,000 people were living on the streets or camping in parks.

Homeless strategy officer David Gray says the problem requires a two-part solution.

"The fact of the matter is, we don't have the luxury of choosing if we want to go all in on more shelter or all in on more housing. We need both. And I'm really proud of the fact that we're making strides and closing gaps in our system," Gray said.

We're told almost half of the people served at Austin's shelters are defined as chronically homeless.

While about 60 percent of people who leave shelters are improving their situation, the strategy office is working to find solutions for the remainder who end up back on the streets.

That's a nearly 300% increase from the Point-in-Time study conducted just two years ago.

We have been predicting (here and here) a homeless population in the 6,000-10,000 range in our city for AT LEAST two years.

Meanwhile city leaders like former Mayor Steve Adler and others have denied these larger estimates, criticized us for suggesting them and put their head in the sand as the homeless crisis cascades in our city.

While City Hall talks a lot about 'the will of the voters' on issues they support (like the illegal Prop A Police Oversight Ordinance), they have ignored the will of the voters on Prop B -- which we spent two years working to get through and which passed in May 2021 by a margin of 58%-42% over the opposition of the then-Mayor, 9/10 council members, every local Democratic elected official and local Democratic organization, and most of the local media.

Prop B reinstated the homeless camping ban, which was in effect for 23 years and which APD testified had a 91% voluntary compliance rate.

In their infinite wisdom, Comrade Greg Casar and his poodle Adler passed the camping ordinance which lifted the camping ban and removed the Sit/Lie ordinance. And they did this with no plan whatsoever for what came next.

Our Prop B reinstated the camping ban and expanded the Sit/Lie ordinance to include the area around the UT campus.

City Hall pretended to care by launching a four-phase enforcement plan which was unserious and which made almost no measurable difference whatsoever. We gave the city several months to demonstrate they would honor the will of the voters, but they didn't.

In February 2022, we sued the City of Austin for refusing the enforce Prop B.

And now, two years later, we are still on step two of the court system. After losing in District Court (as we expected), we have been waiting more than 180 days for the 3rd Court of Appeals to rule on our appeal. When they deny our appeal as we expect, we will appeal to the Texas Supreme Court where we believe we will get a fair hearing.

>>> SUPPORT SAVE AUSTIN NOW HERE <<<

So how did we get here?

The camping ordinance sent a signal that Austin welcomed homeless people here from anywhere and promised them services and shelter and Housing First. After the camping ordinance passed, the shelters emptied and the city no longer provided services to our homeless community who were living on sidewalks, benches, under highways and bridges, in city parks and greenspaces, and in vacant buildings.

A Housing First policy postulates that a jurisdiction cannot tell a homeless person what they can or cannot do without first providing them housing.

Housing First has never succeeded in any large city -- for two undeniable reasons:

1) It is massively expensive.
2) It attracts more homeless to the city that advocates it.

Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and Washington, DC all subscribe to Housing First and their homeless populations are rapidly growing and unsustainably expensive.

A better approach is Treatment First.

A UCLA study conducted several years ago found that roughly 75% of homeless individuals suffer from mental health challenges and 75% of homeless individuals are dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.

Treatment First would help our homeless first address the root causes of their homelessness and put them on a path to success -- over the short and long term.

Providing expensive housing to a homeless person without requiring drug and alcohol testing or a mental health treatment plan is insane. But that remains the policy of our city.

We have compassion for our homeless community. We want them to be safe, sheltered, receiving services, and on a path to a life of purpose.

While Austin has taken some positive steps this year and there are some encouraging signs, our city must fully enforce the Camping Ban and it must reject Housing First and instead embrace Treatment First.

It is the only solution.

SUPPORT OUR PROP B LAWSUIT

In February 2022, we joined with four small business owners who have been directly harmed by the city's willful disregard of both city ordinance and state law to file the lawsuit. We need additional resources to keep the lawsuit going.

Can you help us by contributing today?

There are two ways to give:

 1) You can securely give here.
 2) You can make a check to "Save Austin Now PAC" and mail it to 807 Brazos Street, Suite 701, Austin, TX 78701.

Thank you!

---

> PLEASE SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS TO HOLD THE CITY ACCOUNTABLE: You can support Save Austin Now here.

> PLEASE SUPPORT OUR LEGAL EFFORTS: You can support our legal effort to enforce Prop B (camping ban) here.

- - -

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR AUSTIN POLICE!

We have produced yard signs and bumper stickers for sale to show that although a small minority of police abolitionists make a lot of noise, in fact a majority of Austinites support our police.

You can purchase yard signs here or bumper stickers here.

 > ORDER A BUMPER STICKER HERE
 > ORDER A YARD SIGN HERE

These are available for drop off or pickup within a week of ordering.

---

As we have said before, we have only begun to fight!

Thank you!

-Matt Mackowiak & Cleo Petricek
Co-founders, Save Austin Now PAC

> Questions? Email Matt. Email Cleo.
> Learn more: http://www.SaveAustinNowPAC.com

Will you please support our efforts now?

You may donate to our legal effort here to force full enforcement of Prop B here: https://secure.anedot.com/save-austin-now-pac/save-austin-now-pac-legal-fund-c4cfa533f8ab98c9da232.