Dear Austin City Council,

On behalf of the undersigned, we petition that item #49 on the Feb. 4 City Council agenda be rejected in its current form.

Portions of agenda item 49, introduced by Kitchen and sponsored by Councilmembers Leslie Pool, Sabino ‘Pio’ Renteria and Mackenzie Kelly, pose significant harm to people experiencing homelessness in Austin.

Item 49 would allow the city to recriminalize homelessness in certain areas. As you are aware, it directs city manager Spencer Cronk to add four high-visibility encampments to City Code Section 9-4-11 Camping and Obstruction in Certain Public Areas Prohibited. While we are in support of resources for shelter, rapid re-housing, and other services for people living in the designated areas, we do not support any reinstitution of the previous camping ban.

There are many reasons why more policing is not an effective path to public safety for people experiencing homelessness.

- Making homelessness illegal in these areas would create a reason for escalating police intrusion into the lives of people experiencing homelessness, a group of people that is disproportionately Black.

- There are already laws on the books to address the “proximity to vehicular and pedestrian traffic” issues that Item 49 cites as the impetus for this plan.

- Item 49 ignores existing, evidence-based strategies for prioritizing limited access to shelter, services and housing. Under this plan, the comfort and sensibilities of well-resourced constituents would trump the actual needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Support for city-funded housing and services should not be used as a bargaining chip to recriminalize homelessness. People’s basic human dignity should not be treated as a means to a political end.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We urge the council to address the concerns stated in this petition and reject item #49 in its current form.