Report Sheds Light On Austin's 'Criminalization' Of The Homeless

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Austin prides itself on being a welcoming city, its leaders often boasting of its cultural diversity and breadth of human endeavor — from the influential corporate titan heading up a high tech enterprise to the lowliest musician busking on a sidewalk for loose change.

And yet one segment of the population isn't embraced so warmly: The city's homeless population. A new report titled "Homes Not Handcuffs: How Austin Criminalizes Homelessness," sheds light on what advocates call the increasing criminalization of those experiencing homelessness in the state capital.

Among the city's tactics in deterring homelessness are three ordinances carrying punitive measures against those forced to live on the streets, advocates said. There's one against panhandling (9.4.13), another for camping infractions (9.4.11), and a third dubbed "No Sit, No Lie" that dissuades people from those titular activities (9.4.14)."

Data gathered by Grassroots Leadership and Gathering Ground Theater, the study's co-collaborators, found that those experiencing homelessness are "...repeatedly ticketed by police and pushed into unhealthy situations." Homeless people surveyed reported being issued an average of 5.7 tickets under the ordinances over the course of the year preceding the survey's data, officials said.

Those surveyed received a collective 191 tickets for violating the city's "No Sit, No Lie" provision, 219 "no camping" tickets and 39 more for soliciting during the time period studied, according to the report. The brisk pace of ticketing the homeless has a measurable impact on their already-stressed daily lives, yielding a sense of feeling persecuted as a result, the study suggested. According to the report:

• 57 percent of homeless individuals get only three to five hours of sleep per night.
• 65 percent feel less safe.
• 85 percent experience increased stress.
• 48 percent find it harder to find a job.
• 41 percent find it event harder to find housing.
• 57 percent do not feel comfortable calling 911 for help.

"The results demonstrate high levels of police harassment and avoidance of police among folks experiencing homelessness," the report reads in part. "Folks reported walking for hours and going without rest to avoid ticketing and arrest for sitting or lying. Furthermore, the vast majority of individuals who interacted with police due to these ordinances were not connected to social services or housing assistance as a result of ticketing and arrest."

Exacerbating the plight of the homeless are shortcoming in relation to resources to better accommodate the city's homeless ranks. To illustrate, its authors cited a 2017 count by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition that found more than 2,100 individuals experiencing homelessness each night in Austin, where only about 1,300 emergency and transitional beds are collectively available in shelters.

The upshot: An estimated 800 to 900 people a night are forced to sleep on city streets due to lack of shelter space, rendering the their criminalized activities unavoidable and life-sustaining, the report found.

Advocates conclude that Austin can do better in dealing with the issue.

“The city auditor warned the City of Austin about potential constitutional issues with the local ordinances that criminalize homelessness last November," Cate Graziani, criminal justice campaigns coordinator with Grassroots Leadership and co-author of the report. "That same report cited how ineffective the criminal justice system is at directing people to services and housing, and how counterproductive criminalization is for people that need work and a roof over their head.”

Graziani echoed her colleagues' call for an end for the trio of anti-homeless ordinances currently on the city books: "The repeal of the three City of Austin ordinances that criminalize people experiencing homelessness, while only one step, would go a long way to addressing the harm people are experiencing.”

Read the full report here.

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