Critics say repealing an ordinance that outlawed homeless camping has been bad for Austin. | File photo
Critics say repealing an ordinance that outlawed homeless camping has been bad for Austin. | File photo
Two candidates for the District 2 Austin City Council seat have expressed support for allowing the homeless to live in tent encampments.
In June 2019, Austin City Council repealed a law that banned homeless camping, PJ Media reported.
“Homelessness is not a crime. It is a crisis caused by poverty, discrimination, and decades of institutional oppression and neglect,” David Chincanchan, currently running for the District 2 seat posted on Facebook on Sept. 23. “The council's actions last year to decriminalize homelessness were not sudden or rash – they were long overdue. We must address the root cause of homelessness, rather than cave to the bullies who refuse to acknowledge the humanity of our unhoused neighbors.”
Another candidate for District 2, Vanessa Fuentes, said her complaint was not with the ordinance but the city’s response after repealing the ban.
“I would have insisted that we had firm timelines with clear accountability measures to go along with major investments in helping our unhoused neighbors,” she said, the Austin Statesman reported.
The repeal of the camping ban went into effect July 1, 2019.
“That very day, tent cities began popping up all over town,” PJ Media reported. “Those tent cities grew.”
Homelessness in Austin has been increasing rapidly, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS Austin reported in May. It jumped 11% from 2019 to 2020, according to a count Jan. 25 by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, the station said.
The number of Austin homeless increased even though the city and Travis County increased the number of homeless people it moved into housing by nearly 8%, the station reported.
The number of homeless people who were unsheltered increased 45% from 2019 to 2020, the survey found.
Matt Mackowiak, co-founder the group Save Austin Now, said repealing the city’s camping ordinance played a part in the jump.
"That's what we've been predicting all along,” he told the station. “We said from the beginning that this homeless camping ordinance was going to be a 'Welcome' sign to homeless individuals from throughout Texas and, in fact, throughout the country to come to Austin so they can do what they want, where they want and when they want."
The Austin Statesman previously reported that suspects in violent crimes who were also experiencing homelessness rose 10% in 2019. In January, a homeless man fatally stabbed a person.
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