The City of Austin has reached the one year anniversary of the passage of Proposition B, a ballot initiative which reinstated criminalization of behaviors such as sitting, lying down, camping or asking for help in public — behaviors that are inevitable for people who do not have access to housing and support services. This moment invites us to take stock of the harm caused and perpetuated by this strictly punitive measure, which was soon copied by the Texas Legislature via House Bill 1925, which criminalized camping statewide.
A Driver of Harm
Prop B is first and foremost, a set of reinstated offenses prescribing criminal punishment for those deemed in violation. However, the harmful impacts of Prop B aren’t only felt by those ticketed or arrested under its auspices, they’re felt by almost every person experiencing homelessness in Austin. Due to the unavoidable behaviors it criminalizes, Prop B gives the authorities constant power to punish unhoused people, and with that threat, heightened ability to control their lives.
This control manifests primarily in determining where unhoused people can and cannot sleep, live and keep their belongings, and the ability to forcibly move unhoused people and destroy their possessions whenever they see fit. While these “sweeps” of unhoused encampments existed during the period before Prop B, when homelessness was effectively decriminalized, their frequency, consistency and range have increased dramatically since. The forced displacement of these sweeps causes immense suffering and trauma for people already overwhelmingly suffering the daily trauma of living unhoused against their will. The testimonials below from those experiencing homelessness, engaged in mutual aid efforts with unhoused folks, and providing services to the unhoused describe some of the harms Prop B has wrought.
“Prop B’s passing has been a year marked by suffering, inequity, and the pain of insurmountable loss by the unhoused community. There are only injustices and it is overdue for those injustices to be admonished, and at very least acknowledged. The harrowing truth of this anniversary is that innocent, impoverished people have already lost their lives as they became lost or forgotten. My people are a group made of the needy suffering from mental illnesses, disabilities and socioeconomic injustice. We deserved a better and more humane solution from our public officials and fellow constituents.”
- Whitley Degollado, Unhoused Community Council“The passing of Prop B has brought a heightened awareness to the lack of education, understanding & compassion towards our unhoused neighbors. It’s allowed an increase of abuse, neglect & traumatization to some of our most vulnerable members of society. Many of the folks I know & encounter on the streets have some type of disability, mental and or physical. Forcibly stealing our neighbor’s homes via sweeps and their ability to create shelter under bridges and collaborate in encampments is the true criminal act. I truly believe future generations will question this cruelty and be ashamed of what we’ve done.”
- Sasha Rose, Austin Mutual Aid“I lost my husband right after the reinstatement of Prop B and that has made my struggle harder. Its hard enough to find somewhere where they aren’t going to sweep you or harass you, but it’s harder when as a female you lose your security blanket. Thousands of estimated homeless people in Austin and we are just a problem and an eyesore for the people who aren’t homeless and it breaks my heart and most days my spirit.”
- Candince Arron Swarm, Austin Area Urban League Ambassador & Founder of For the People Project“Being Unhoused was really hard for me without food, water, or even a tent. And though the people of Austin said they were going to help us, they just watched our suffering. We need to be transitioned into homes not handcuffs or creeks or woods.”
- Marcia Collard, Austin Area Urban League Ambassador
“We Can Now is a direct service provider to our homeless population… Since Prop B has passed it has made it extremely difficult to locate the unhoused population to not only provide necessary help but make sure they are even alive! A large % of people experiencing homelessness are over 45 years of age and have many health issues such as diabetes, arthritis, and just being unable to move around regularly. This is a major issue when they are in the woods experiencing harmful situations and can’t be seen by a medical expert or outreach teams such as (We Can Now) can’t find them because Prob B forced them to not be seen in the public. ”
- Antony Jackson, We Can Now
A Major Step Backward for Justice
Austin Police have charged 243 people for violating the ordinance criminalizing homelessness. Every ticket, sweep, and potentially violent police encounter drives a widening wedge between the person experiencing homelessness and the hope of accessing housing.
Maps of the targeted areas for enforcement show that Prop B enforcement has taken place downtown or along major roads, forcing people into neighborhoods primarily in the Eastern crescent of Austin, and perpetuating Austin’s history of segregation.
The visible targets for Prop B enforcement prove that the primary interest of this law is to reduce the visibility of the unhoused population to the affluent and those passing along major roadways.
Even as these policies have driven people further from public sight, the percentage of our unhoused neighbors who have reported being the victims of violence has risen dramatically, from 55.6% in the period from 2017 to 2021, to 62.5% in the period from 2021–2022, according to Austin’s Prioritization Index. The increase in violence must also be acknowledged as the legacy of Prop B.
A Contributor to Homelessness
One thing is certain: Prop B did not help end or reduce homelessness. HMIS data clearly shows that more people sleep outside than did before the pandemic. The fact that some people are no longer visible, does not mean that they are not very present within our communities, and experiencing ongoing traumas. Case workers have a more difficult or impossible time finding their clients, enforcement and sweeps have bred chaos, with uhoused populations drifting from campsite to campsite, in desperate search of temporary respite. Meanwhile, neighborhoods throughout the city have witnessed increases in unhoused neighbors.
Prop B’s failure to provide any resources or funding for housing, diversion, or services has increased the chaos, lack of coordination, and lack of trust in our response systems, and has rightfully earned its place of shame among the city’s worse public policies.
