Image courtesy of KXAN.
As of July 1, the city of Austin has started enforcing new rules in regards to how they will handle those currently affected by homelessness. In Austin, panhandling and camping in public areas was banned, but is difficult to enforce.
Prior to this date, it had been illegal for a homeless individual to erect a tent on any public sidewalk anywhere in the city. However, for camping to be considered illegal under the new guidelines, the Austin Police Department says that one of two situations must occur:
- There must be a danger presented to the safety and health of another citizen OR
- A path must be blocked and the offender refuses to move if an officer asks them to do so.
If neither issue is occurring, then no action can be taken by law enforcement authorities.
Austin City Council recently took a look at Section 9-4-11, which states that camping by homeless individuals is prohibited in any and all public places. From there, they made the decision to add a section to that code, the aforementioned situations of camping still being illegal if a safety and health danger is presented to others or if it makes public areas impassable.
The only types of punishment that could be enforced by the Austin Police Department for those found to be in violation of the new rules are either being issued tickets or being arrested, depending on the overall seriousness of the offense being committed. When it comes to issuing tickets, however, officers will first be required to issue a warning. All in all, the main goal is that unintended consequences want to be avoided altogether when it comes to homeless camping in public places.
Despite the enforcement of the new rules regarding public areas, it’s important to note that this does not include areas such as local parks. For example, a location such as Zilker Park falls under an entirely different section in the city code altogether, that being Title 8, Section 8-1-12. This states that “a person may not fish, camp, or use a specific area in a public recreation area between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am without an approval.”
In other words, even though the city of Austin has somewhat eased up on homeless individuals being able to camp more easily in public areas, in no way does that mean that they will be able to do so in areas such as public parks. These areas fall under their own specific guidelines per other specific city codes.
Additionally, it also will remain illegal for homeless individuals to camp on any other types of private property as well.
In terms of the new guidelines, this also does not mean that homeless individuals will be able to simply camp, sit, or lay down on any sidewalk whenever they wish to do so. This is because legally speaking, sidewalks are considered to be public areas, so blocking them completely would be considered committing a safety and public health hazard against another individual, meaning that the offender would have to move since they would be obstructing the path.
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