Before I left for vacation, we had an election on a series of propositions (aka governments not doing their job by blaming the electorate) and I wasn’t allowed to vote in anything because I live in unincorporated Pflugerville. The big one I had no say in was Prop B, the anti-camping ban being reinstated. Like numerous urban centers, Austin has an enormous homeless population thanks to our housing crisis (there’s no shortage, just greedy assholes), better weather, Republican indifference, NeoLiberal bullshit, fake Christianity and other factors. Many of the homeless are also mentally ill and if they weren’t originally, they probably are now since sleeping outside would drive anyone insane. Austin does have some shelters but obviously they’re overwhelmed like everywhere else and shelters are only the first stage in trying to cure an intractable problem.
The interim solution to handle the overflow was allow or ignore the growing tent cities under Austin’s I-35, MoPac and 183 overpasses, namely the huge one located in what we call the Whale Bones. The NIMBY forces came up with every excuse on why this needed to stop (property values, UT recruiting, appearances, etc.) while never addressing the actual problem: no affordable housing, shit wages and cuts to mental-health services.
They won fairly handily thanks to dark money from realtors, developers and other rich shitbags. Starting several days ago (5/11), the cops can now fine them $500 for every violation. Genius! Let’s penalize the homeless for something they don’t have! Eventually their unpaid misdemeanors will swell into felonies and then they can be arrested. I’m guessing another dark-money source was the private prison system our Neo-Confederate government is so fond of.
What I would like to do is make these selfish pricks demonstrate their absolute, true colors by helping a charity buy an abandoned hotel or apartment building to use as a transition place. The first step to defeating homelessness and poverty is give these people a safe place to sleep, bathe and pull themselves together. Then heal them up while getting them back on their feet with a job and into affordable housing (another matter the developers are allergic to creating in their avarice). Sounds great until the NIMBY people bitch and bitch about how this place is near their posh homes in Westlake, Travis Heights or Hyde Park…quel dommage! Or worse, their taxes go up a little to pay for this! It will make them long for the days of how St. Reagan and his disciples solved it,…give these people bus tickets to New Orleans, Phoenix or Little Rock, let them be somebody else’s problem.