Austin City Council delays vote on homelessness ordinances - News - Austin American-Statesman - Austin, TX

Thursday

The Austin City Council on Thursday took hours of testimony, asking questions in hopes of clearing the air over the proposed narrowing of homeless ordinances related to panhandling and sleeping in public spaces but ultimately took no vote.

The council will take up the three ordinances on June 20. The delay resulted after some opposition to altering the ordinances arose mainly from the Downtown Austin Alliance, a consortium of downtown businesses and residents.

Council Member Greg Casar, a driving force behind changing local laws prohibiting panhandling, camping in public places and the "no site/lie" ordinance, said that the discussion did much to debunk misinformation related to the homelessness ordinances.

"I think what we have concluded is that everyone's intent is the same," Casar said. "People have been saying this will allow you to do whatever you want in parks. … That we established on Tuesday is not true."

"What is true is we have ordinances on the books that say it is a criminal violation to sleep in your car," Casar continued. "We know that that is just not right."

Casar had proposed repealing the panhandling ordinance, which prohibits soliciting downtown between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. A full repeal now appears off the table with a new proposed ordinance that changes the law from a solicitation ban to a prohibition on "aggressive confrontation."

The council might also narrow the camping ordinance to apply to only when a person camps in a dangerous area or intentionally camps on public property in an area that disrupts its use and change the “no sit/lie” ordinance to a blanket obstruction ordinance that applies only to when a person is sleeping or sitting in an area that is dangerous or blocks access to public property.