We understand the camping ban is pushing Austin City Council to find a fast and affordable solution to shelter the unhoused. We do not want to see our unhoused neighbors put in jail. However, we have concerns about the proposed plan to put a sanctioned encampment on 3511 Manor Road for multiple reasons.

First off, people need to be in permanent supportive housing or temporarily sheltered in some way. A sanctioned camp is semi-sheltered at best. We have significant concerns about a sanctioned encampment executing the support services required to be safe, clean, and successful. Most of the time sanctioned encampments do not end up being temporary but permanent fixtures in communities.

Second, when the city council first started talking about sanctioned encampments they discussed encampments in every council district. With only two proposed locations, that is not what is happening. While we think Northeast Austin can be (and already is) part of the solution for the unhoused, we do not think we should be disproportionately responsible for the solution. As Councilwoman Harper-Madison stated, "the current camping plan is a continuation of that mindset "of sweeping all of its unwanted people and things to the East Side of I-35." That is not equitable and discriminatory to the area. We are already home to Community First Village, which is expanding dramatically. We already have The Salvation Army Rathberger Center and the Children's Shelter in Rathberger Village. It's also worth noting that a homeless shelter is being opened in Cherrywood less than 2 miles away from the 3511 Manor Road location. We do want to see the unhoused in Austin get the help they need. Everyone in Austin should be involved in making that happen. The many communities who have not been as participatory (or not participatory at all) must take part in helping the unhoused. 

Finally, while the 3511 Manor Road location is in the JJ Seabrook Neighborhood, it’s also Mueller adjacent and easily walkable to amenities that serve children and families including but not limited to multiple preschools, residential homes, the new Northeast Middle School, bike/walking trails, playgrounds, a golf course, the Children's Museum, and the Children's Hospital. If the sanctioned camp is not well run, structured, or designed to fit within these communities, we will be impacted. If this trend of concentrating the unhoused within East Austin continues, our communities will be impacted, which is why no single area of Austin should be asked to do more than another. 

As such we are asking - before our community is required to take on a sanctioned encampment, other communities outside of East Austin who have been less participatory in helping the unhoused need to step up and be a more proportionate part of the solution first. Therefore, 3511 Manor Road should be removed from consideration for a sanctioned homeless encampment at this time. It should then be replaced with a site or ideally a better solution in another part of Austin that has either not participated or has not participated on a comparable scale to East Austin.