Downtown Austin Homeless Encampment Dismantled

AUSTIN, TX — Police accompanied city crews to the are outside the downtown Austin homeless shelter on Monday morning to dismantle a makeshift homeless encampment that had been set up there in response to formerly relaxed city rules on lying and sitting on streets.

Patch was first to report on plans to demolish the encampment, but the deadline kept being changed until it was ultimately done today. In an effort to decriminalize homelessness, Austin City Council members in June loosened rules related to lying or sitting on city streets, giving rise to an encampment site along Neches Street between 7th and 8th streets next to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH).

"Regarding today’s cleanups around the ARCH, this was a pre-planned initiative called 'Guided Path' that has been in the works for a few weeks," the Austin Police Department said by early Monday evening in a prepared statement. "It was coordinated with the COA (City of Austin) Homeless Strategy Office, Front Steps, Integral Care, and ECHO to name a few. The cleanup had been previously planned for 10/29 and then 10/31 but was rescheduled again to this morning due to inclement weather."

Ahead of the Neches Street eviction, those living along the homeless center were offered services and resources in an effort to find them more permanent housing, police noted in their press advisory. No punitive measures were taken on the day of the eventual dismantling of tents along Neches Street, police stressed: "The Austin Police Department’s responsibility was to make sure everyone was safe and to gain compliance in moving while persons experiencing homelessness were provided resources," police said. "We did not make any arrests nor did we issue citations."

As a result of the relaxed rules, homeless people were suddenly allowed to sit or lie on sidewalks so long as they were not obstructing the path of pedestrians. Homeless people also were allowed to pitch tents in open areas except city parks and other recreational areas as well as along creeks and other waterways. Aside from Neches Street, tents started popping up across town, particularly under highway overpasses — until Monday, when Texas Department of Public Safety crews banished homeless people from those areas on orders of the governor at the same time city crews cleared Neches Street.

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Austin's erstwhile lax rules had the net effect of making homelessness more visible given the abundance of tents that sprouted up across the city — under highway overpasses and across the street from the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless at 500 E. 7th St. The latter site became something of a ground zero in illustrating the breadth of the homeless situation in Austin given the highly visible makeshift encampment that sprouted up there in the wake of the city's relaxed rules.

After considerable backlash — and unforeseen circumstances such as the abundant tents and a ready-made clientele for drug dealers and prostitutes — the city rescinded some of its own revamped rules to rein the situation in. The stretch of Neches Street between 7th and 8th streets would soon emerge as priority for removal.

Patch learned of plans to demolish that virtual shantytown, as detailed in an Oct. 14 report. The breadth of the article took ARCH officials by surprise as the plans to upend the site in favor of a concerted housing push were being quietly discussed behind the scenes.

As one reached the end of the corridor on 8th and Neches streets, a large gathering of people who had made the place home could be seen on Oct. 18. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

As it happened, the day of reckoning came on Monday, Nov. 4. Crews could be seen throwing away tents and other belongings of those formerly calling the encampment home, under the watchful eye of police monitoring the scene. A large trash dumpster was dispatched to the scene to facilitate disposal of the homeless detritus, a move originally detailed by Patch in the earlier report.

The goal now is to bolster efforts to help the homeless secure housing rather than facilitate their living on the streets. Austin police have revamped their own protocol in making contact with homeless people, which includes using verbiage crafted to coax then into pursuing housing. The renewed efforts are in line with an initiative dubbed "Housing First" that has seen varying degrees of success in other cities across the country. The effort is a relatively recent innovation in human service programs and social policy regarding treatment of people who are homeless, viewed as an alternative to a system of emergency shelters and/or transitional housing.

In the immediate aftermath of the encampment's demolition, some of its former residents (up to 130 people given occupancy limits) were to be offered temporary lodging at the downtown homeless shelter. A variety of amenities designed help the homeless is offered at the ARCH building — shower facilities, meals, clothing, health care and more — along with resources designed to help people find homes.

The dismantling of the Neches Street encampment coincided on the same day that Gov. Greg Abbott dispatched Texas Department of Public Safety crews to banish homeless people from living under highway overpasses and bridges across the city. Abbott has been a vocal critic of Austin's earlier efforts to relax rules related to homeless behavior, vowing to marshal state resources to intercept in ridding the city of makeshift homes from areas underneath overpasses.

Patch took a stroll along the now-demolished homeless corridor on Oct. 18 after attending a press conference staged by Mayor Steve Adler to update the revamped ordinance that rescinded this summer's more lax iteration. The community was thriving, with people inside their tents and others setting up chairs on the curb as they conversed. Along the way, some of its denizens verbally objected to filming at the site they now called home, prompting an early exit by a Patch reporter.

Video of the Neches Street homeless encampment by Tony Cantú/Patch

By Monday, Nov. 4, that once-thriving makeshift community had been dismantled piece by piece, as its denizens were dispersed to unknown locales. Returning to the corridor, all but a couple of tents were still visible by late afternoon as a smattering of homeless people could be seen sitting on curbs once lined with makeshift homes.

Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Walking along the block of Neches Street, one saw the remnants of personal belongings now destined for the city landfill.

Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

Indeed, by Monday the once-bustling homeless community along Neches Street had been reduced to rubble.

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Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.