{"id":17444,"date":"2021-10-13T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=17444"},"modified":"2022-10-09T06:07:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T10:07:32","slug":"austins-homeless-residents-left-with-nowhere-to-go-amid-camping-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/austins-homeless-residents-left-with-nowhere-to-go-amid-camping-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin’s Homeless Residents Left with Nowhere to Go Amid Camping Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
Editor’s note: This article contains explicit language.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n By the time city crews demolished Austin’s most prominent homeless encampment, Dominek Palmer and her husband, Charles Taylor, had already tried to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n Two weeks ago, police cited Palmer and Taylor for violating the city’s voter-approved ban on homeless encampments \u2014 for sleeping in their car under Interstate 35 at the intersection of Seventh Street downtown.<\/span><\/p>\n When they tried to drive somewhere else, Palmer said, their car ran out of gas on a nearby hill.<\/span><\/p>\n The morning of Sept. 29, the camp’s remaining residents were told to leave under threat of arrest as crews with the Austin Public Works Department removed at least two dozen tents. Austin police parked a paddy wagon at the encampment \u2014 which was right across the street from police headquarters.<\/span><\/p>\n “That’s our housing?” Palmer said. “If we don’t leave or we can’t get put up \u2026 y’all are offering us jail.”<\/span><\/p>\n Facing pressure from Gov.\u00a0<\/span>Greg Abbott<\/span>, who championed a new statewide law banning camping in public places, Austin officials in recent weeks have cleared out the city’s most visible camps and sent a clear message to Austin’s homeless population: They are no longer welcome to live in plain view.<\/span><\/p>\n With few choices, many Austinites experiencing homelessness have been forced to retreat out of sight for fear of getting ticketed or arrested.<\/span><\/p>\nBut Austin doesn’t have enough housing or shelter space for the\u00a0<\/span>estimated 3,000 residents experiencing homelessness<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/h4>\n