Varied groups oppose ordinances aimed at homeless

Groups say rules could criminalize petitioners, day laborers, poor people.

By Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

When the Austin City Council votes Thursday on new ordinances to curtail panhandling, solicitation and sleeping on the sidewalk, it'll have an array of groups opposing the changes.

Advocates for homeless people say the ordinances would trample on the constitutional rights of the poor; day laborers say the ordinances would be a stealth way to outlaw seeking work; and environmental and political groups say the ordinances would quash their ability to canvass and raise money door-to-door. All are threatening lawsuits.

But many downtown businesses and residents, and some social service groups such as the Salvation Army, favor the ordinances, saying unruly beggars and habitual homeless trespassers are ruining downtown's safety and aesthetics. At two public hearings, speakers described situations in which homeless people defecated on their property, shot up drugs in alleys, yelled obscenities and made threats.

Eddie Safady, a downtown resident who works at Prosperity Bank downtown, said he has compassion for homeless people but is tired of seeing the same ones urinating, littering and passing out in front of his home and workplace. When he calls the police, he said, he's told they can't do anything.

"People have to realize that downtown is a neighborhood, too, and we deserve to have it be safe and clean," he said.

Interviews with all the City Council members indicate they'll pass the ordinances, possibly with small changes; only Council Member Danny Thomas said he'd like to delay the vote to sort out some of the conflicts.

The violations would be Class C misdemeanors, and offenders could get a warning or ticket before being arrested.

"Our purpose is to get compliance. We're not looking to just rattle off tickets or throw people in jail," said Assistant Chief Robert Dahlstrom of the Austin Police Department.

This is not the first time Austin has tweaked its "public order" ordinances, but city leaders say the tightening up is especially needed now, as the City Council tries to draw more residents and dense development downtown, away from sprawling suburbs.

Austin has rules banning acts such as camping, obstructing a sidewalk and aggressive solicitation. Records from the downtown community court show there were 93 aggressive solicitation offenses downtown in 2003 and 242 in 2004; there were 150 camping offenses in 2003 and 301 in 2004. But city officials say those rules are too vague and don't sufficiently cover bad behavior.

To fix that, one proposed ordinance would ban begging downtown from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., when it's considered the most intimidating. Other changes would ban sitting and sleeping on downtown sidewalks, though Council Member Jennifer Kim said she wants to exempt people who stand in line for event tickets.

Council members point out that they approved $1 million in the 2006 budget to add 70 beds and weekend hours at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless and one new social worker to provide substance abuse treatment.

But it's still not clear whether the ordinances would help or appease anyone involved. Homeless people would still be able to panhandle downtown during the day. Officers would not be required to take offenders to a shelter where they could enroll in drug or alcohol treatment. Offenders would appear in downtown community court, which doles out low-level punishment such as community service, and repeat offenders would face tougher sentences in county court only if their offenses involve substance abuse, court administrator Greg Toomey said. And if street-sleepers are ticketed, not arrested, they could take their chances and simply move down the road to another spot.

Mitch Weynand, chairman of the city's homeless task force, said the city should offer homeless people more housing, jobs and substance abuse treatment instead. Even with the new rules, he said, "You'd put someone in jail and let them right back out. We don't feel like that solves anything."

Another proposed ordinance would prohibit a pedestrian from asking for money or business from someone in a car citywide, a practice currently banned only downtown and in a few other parts of Austin.

Critics say that ordinance is so broad it would criminalize such things as hailing a cab, setting up a kids' lemonade stand and letting charity groups raise money at intersections.

"There are already laws on the books for impeding traffic, for indecent exposure, defecation in public, the type of things the City Council is trying to stop," Diego Bernal of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said.

The no-solicitation ordinance would be ripe for a constitutional challenge, he said, because it would explicitly ban seeking work and business but wouldn't explicitly ban religious or political speech, such as handing out campaign fliers.

What's more, the ordinance would inevitably target day laborers and "would be hostile to an already marginalized population," said Emily Timm of the Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center, part of the Equal Justice Center. Right now, the city runs only one official day labor site, though Timm said there are at least six informal corners throughout the city.

Council Member Lee Leffingwell said that he supports adding day labor sites but that for now, the new ordinance would prevent the unsafe scenario of day laborers stepping into the street. Mayor Will Wynn said he'd prefer that the day labor issue be dealt with separately, not through the ordinances.

Jenny Gilchrist of the Austin law department said the ordinances would hold up in court because they are plenty specific and are about public safety, not free speech.

The proposed changes also would ban door-to-door solicitation at night, starting at 7. That ordinance has rankled nonprofit and political groups that rely on canvassing and petitioning door-to-door until 9 p.m., when people are home from work.

Robin Schneider of Texas Campaign for the Environment said her group generates thousands of letters and phone calls to politicians and can influence issues simply by knocking on doors. Leffingwell said he'll suggest changing the restricted time to start at 9 p.m.

One objection the dissenting groups seem to share is that the new rules could mar Austin's reputation as a compassionate town.

"People know Austin to be a liberal, welcoming, diverse city, and this paints it in an entirely different light," Timm said.

scoppola@statesman.com; 912-2939