Ken Paxton sues controversial South Austin homeless center

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a south Austin homeless center saying it is "drastically harming the quality of life in the area and endangering neighborhood residents, local businesses, and the students of a nearby elementary school."

Paxton says the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center on Menchaca Road is a nuisance under Texas law.

The attorney general is asking the court to step in and issue a temporary stop to the center's operations while the case is heard.

The center's website states the center helped nearly 11,000 people last year and served 78,000 meals.

Paxton argues the facility acts as a "magnet" for drug and criminal activity that operates near an elementary school.

"Students and staff at the elementary school have been terrorized by the conduct that Sunrise's operations facilitate," the filing states.

The filing goes on to claim that students and staff have witnessed the homeless walking around naked and using drugs openly.

"Drug activity and criminal behavior facilitated by this organization have hijacked an entire neighborhood," Paxton said. "By operating a taxpayer-funded drug paraphernalia giveaway next to an elementary school, this organization is threatening students’ health and safety and unjustly worsening daily life for every single resident of the neighborhood. We will shut this unlawful nuisance behavior down."

The lawsuit comes just days after Travis County commissioners voted to award Sunrise $350,000 in grant money to expand their efforts to help the homeless with healthcare.

"I think it's overdue," said neighbor Scott Parker. "Bluntly, I think it's overdue." 

Scott Parker's 'blunt' statement seems to be the consensus among people who live in the South Austin neighborhood near the homeless center.

"Our businesses are closing because their customers don't want to have to deal with walking through what they see around them to get to the services that they're looking for, and that's really sad," said Dale Herron, the president of the Western Trails Neighborhood Association.

Ashley Hammack also lives in the neighborhood, and she is a parent. 

"A lot of the homeless were living under the trees, leaving syringes, condoms," said Ashley Hammack. "I found Narcan, I found human feces." 

Hammack lives only a few blocks from the church, and her son attends the elementary school across the street. 

"I've had to teach him what syringes are because I've found them on the actual playground structure themselves, and so he's very aware of what to look for," said Hammack. 

The lawsuit stated that the homeless center is only 200 feet away from Joslin Elementary School, where students and staff bear witness to the violence and criminal activities. The church and school are directly across the street from one another. 

"We've had people having sex in the playscape just here behind me," said Herron. "It's very unfortunate that our kids have to witness this." 

Parker has lived in the Western Trails Neighborhood for the last 15 years and said it used to be a peaceful place to call home. 

"Public nudity, masturbation, defecation, needles in the park; the neighborhood has been under siege for at least the past five years, if not longer," said Parker. 

"The services that they provide are instrumental in too many of their lives, and it's good stuff," said Herron. "It's just where they're located."

Mark Hilbelink, Executive Director of Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, said the facility only found out about the lawsuit after reading the press release. 

You can read the full statement below: