WilCo Sheriff's Donation To Homeless Couple Rebuffed

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — A homeless couple living in Williamson County returned a donation made by the sheriff late Monday after they were featured in his video to spotlight Austin's relaxed stance on dealing with those living on the streets.

While off duty recently, WilCo Sheriff Robert Chody spotted the homeless couple as he traveled in his personal vehicle near his North Austin home, according to the homeless man's account. The sheriff showcased is interaction with the homeless man, Tom Pettit, 52, via a spontaneously produced cell phone video he later posted on Twitter he turned into something of a foray into big-city politics down south.

Seeking to de-criminalize homelessness, members of the Austin City Council recently relaxed rules on camping and resting on sidewalks — a move that has become a polarizing issue. Chody used the encounter to voice his own take on the matter. In his video, Chody suggested the Austin council's rules loosening is creating an encroachment of homeless people nearer to WilCo as evidenced by the two homeless people he had just encountered.

"A pitched tent in the neighborhood?" he asked in a video-attached Twitter post on Oct. 3. "Occupied by a homeless veteran. I stopped to just take a pic to send to the mayor. Tom here saw me with my camera & he was frustrated as was I. As we talked, we both became educated & agreed that @MayorAdler needs to fix this now," he added, tagging Gov. Greg Abbott.

The first reference is to Mayor Steve Adler, the Austin mayor who has voiced approval of relaxing laws overseeing the homeless. The efforts were taken to stop already-taxed members on the society's margins from being continually assessed fines they likely will never be able to pay while offering reprieve from frequent contact with police seeking to remove them. Essentially, the new ordinances allow homeless people in Austin to sit or lie on public sidewalks so long as they do so without obstructing foot traffic. Camping in public parks and recreational areas still is prohibited.

Unlike Adler, the governor is vehemently opposed to the loosened rules — and hasn't been shy in voicing his disdain. "Feces & used needles are piling up & residents are endangered," he recently wrote in a social media post without providing evidence of such claims. He then threatened to use his gubernatorial power to upend the city's new ordinances by Nov. 1 if he didn't perceive changes.

But let's return to Williamson County. After his exchange with Pettit, the sheriff — a multimillionaire by virtue of his wife's $51.2 million Texas Lottery win some 20 years ago —the two traveled in the sheriff's car for a short drive while his partner remained inside the tent, having not yet met Chody. After withdrawing money from an ATM, Chody handed Pettit $200.

In a telephone interview with Patch, Pettit said he immediately felt uneasy about taking the money but the grinding effects of homelessness made his accepting it something of a reflexive move. "When he handed me the money, I had the intuition he gave me $200 to leave his neighborhood," Pettit said. "I accepted the money because I do need help."

At that, Pettit asked his partner, Asher Arvizu, 30, to meet the sheriff. Arvizu, a transgender person currently transitioning from female to male, emerged from the couple's makeshift home Avery Ranch and Parmer Lane. "He had zero interest in what I had to say," Arvizu told Patch, claiming the sheriff avoided eye contact.

Arvizu — who is employed, earning an hourly wage at a nearby dog grooming salon — noted the tent the couple share is pitched where it is given its near proximity to her employer, undermining Chody's claims of a slow encroachment of homeless people into his neighborhood thanks to Austin laws. Having studied cultural anthropology — including the issue of homelessness — at Austin Community College, Arvizu expressed being at odds ideologically with the sheriff on such matters: "Our views are just very different," Arvizu said, leaving it at that. Arvizu

But the $200 Arvizu learned about only later subsequently engendered much discussion between the couple, who ultimately decided to return the money. The pair secured a ride to the WilCo county seat of Georgetown from a friend, and filmed themselves returning the cash at the sheriff's office.

"Today, we went down to the sheriff department to see @SheriffChody to return his gift, $200," Pettit wrote on social media. "He wasn't there, but I explained who I am & that I appreciate the gesture. We believe giving money to the homeless isn't the answer. A safe place to sleep, work, is better."

A vacationing Chody was unavailable.

Pettit later altered his sign alerting passing motorists he wasn't looking for a handout, but employment. Pettit used a double entendre in making his point, employing humor to mitigate the awkwardness of the encounter with Chody.

"Always looking to improve, my new sign included," Pettit joked on Twitter, showing his revamped sign. "BIG thanks to all who have reached out to me and my girl to help. Again I stress, no $ please. Following up on job opportunities offered to me," he added before thanking Chody for "...having shed light on their situation."

Pettit earlier wrote he is a fisherman — a term meant metaphorically, Ash would later correct Patch — and would like for someone to loan him a boat: "Need help finding work. I know how to fish. Loan me a boat and I'll feed us both. Trying to provide for me and my girl without getting us separated."

He told Patch how his life started to unravel after the suicide of his son in 2015 while on military service, following in the footsteps of his dad who served in the U.S. Marines until being honorably discharged in 1993. After his military service, Pettit told Patch he once had a thriving computer business called Better Faster Computers before descending into a dark abyss in trying to cope with his son's death.

In the midst of his grief, Pettit acknowledged having had scrapes with the law in his past and spending all the money he had on marijuana. But along the way to his recovery, he came across the book "Living in the Now: How to Live as the Spiritual Being That You Are" he said changed his life, spent a stint as a volunteer firefighter, met Arvizu and felt his life beginning to turn a corner. For Arvizu, meeting Pettit couldn't have come at a better time following a manic episode precipitating a return to Austin after having spent time visiting grandparents.

After having met, they decided to try their luck in Texas together, and Pettit said his spirits are high. Both acknowledge sleeping in the tent is difficult — "...the ants really ate me up last night," Pettit said — but they've got each other. Pettit said officials from the Veterans Administration have approached him about securing housing, but that would mean being separated from Arvizu, which would contradict the ethic of "Semper Fi" he learned in the Marines — always faithful, in the current context to his partner.

"Coming to Austin, I can be the person I want to be," Pettit said. "I'm a good man, and I want to stand by those values." Diagnosed a bipolar, Arvizu also has renewed strength after having suffered a manic episode that hastened departure from California, and back to Austin after first having arrived at the age of 20: "Tom picked me up, and has never left my side."

Chody has not filmed a follow-up video since his donation was rebuffed. The true test of his willingness to assist the couple could be rooted on the homeless man's public request after the two men's spontaneous interaction: "I want Chody to tell us where we can go without getting separated to sleep safely in his county if we can trust him to help us if the ordinance is rescinded," he wrote on Twitter, the last a reference to the newly passed Austin ordinances now under threat by the governor.

That request for help could be the moment of reckoning in terms of measurable assistance to the homeless in this county on Austin's outskirts. But it's clear the homeless problem in Williamson County — not often discussed locally, particularly given heated battle on the topic down south some 40 miles in Austin — now has been perhaps inadvertently thrust into the spotlight by county sheriff.

To read up on the homeless issue in Austin, check out this previous coverage from Patch:

• Report Sheds Light On Austin's 'Criminalization' Of The Homeless
• Austin Seeks To Tackle Homelessness Issue
• UT-Austin Police Oppose City Steps To Decriminalize Homelessness
• Austin Mayor, Governor Clash On Homeless Issue
• Abbott Vows State Intervention To Upend Austin Homeless Rules