AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- A group seeking to reinstate Austin's camping ban says they have gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.
Save Austin Now says they've collected 24,087 signatures, more than the 20,000 needed. The signatures still need to be verified by the city clerk's office, a process organizers say could take several weeks.
"We are ecstatic to have turned in so many signed petitions from every neighborhood, every zip code, and every demographic across our city from residents who just want to live in a safe city," said Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak. "Over the past 148 days, we have had more than 80 unpaid volunteers collect petitions and our efforts have been made possible by more than 1,000 individual donations."
Once verified, City Council will have the option of adopting the proposed ordinances outright, or putting the items before voters in November.
"Voters will now be able to fix the mess created by Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Greg Casar," Mackowiak said. "The homeless camping ordinance has been a disaster for our city, with violent crime rising at the fastest rate in five years and the unhoused homeless population rising 45 percent last year. The camping ordinance has harmed public safety, public health, tourism and the image of Austin, while making our homeless less safe. We are not anti-homeless; we are anti-camping. We want the homeless safe in shelters, in transitional housing, or at the state campground where it is safer for them and where services are provided. Together, we can save our city."
The petition calls for the ban on public camping to be reinstated, along with reinstaing the ordinance prohibiting sitting and lying in public places in the downtown area and extending it to the University of Texas campus, and a prohibition on panhandling between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. daily across the city.