City of Austin begins next phase of homeless camping ban enforcement

The City of Austin has now entered Phase 3 of its four-phased plan to reinstate its homeless camping ban. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has details.

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin has now entered Phase 3 of its four-phased plan to reinstate its homeless camping ban. The third phase began July 11.

During Phase 3, crews will begin clearing out campsites.

As for arrests, the city says they will only be made in situations where someone refuses to vacate a site that is considered to be dangerous for the public. That could be a spot where the risk of fire or flooding is high, or an area that is prone to crashes or pedestrian accidents. Most of those arrested would be sent to the Downtown Austin Community Court, and not booked into jail.

Mayor Steve Adler argues the city is putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to helping people living in tents—and is devoting more than $65 million to the fight against homelessness over the next fiscal year.

LIVE: Mayor Adler talks City budget

Austin Mayor Steve Adler joined Good Day Austin Sunday morning to talk about the City's proposed $4.5 billion budget.

"We have to do more than just sustain where we are. We're going to get ahead of this challenge, actually get people off the streets and out of tents. We're going to have to scale it up, and that's going to be different funding," said Adler, in an interview with Good Day Austin anchor Casey Claiborne this weekend.

There is money allocated in the budget for housing for the homeless, in addition to mental health and employment programs. There are several designated campsites in the planning stages, and the city is working on several options for housing in the coming months.

"All told, by the end of the current fiscal year, we project that more than 1300 individuals who had been experiencing homelessness will move into housing through city funded housing programs, whether long term through our permanent supportive housing programs, or medium term via our rapid rehousing efforts," said City Manager Spencer Cronk in his budget address on Friday.

Cronk admitted the road ahead on homelessness is long, but vowed the city will not walk away from dealing with it.

Phase 3 will run until August 8th. After that, Phase 4 will pick up. For more information on the city’s phased plan, click here.

REINSTATEMENT OF HOMELESS CAMPING BAN

Concerns as Austin's homeless camping ban enters Phase 3

The reinstatement of the homeless camping ban continues with the city increasing enforcement but many still feel those living in tents do not have enough places to move. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has details.

For the past two months, the city has been implementing Phase One and Phase Two of its plan to reinstate the citywide camping ban. Officials have been giving out warnings and citations as well as beginning the cleanup process.

"The emphasis has really been on outreach, on education, on talking to individuals making sure they know that those areas will no longer be open to camping and that they need to find other places to go," said Kathie Tovo, Austin City Council Member for District 9.

Tovo represents District 9, the district with the highest number of people experiencing homelessness.

However, Tovo says there's a problem. "We have a fundamental problem at the heart of this, and that is we don't have places to suggest people go."

Austin's homeless camping ban reinstatement came after Prop B was approved by voters in May.

With the reinstatement of the camping ban, it makes it illegal to camp in certain places, sit or lie on public sidewalks, and panhandle at night

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