The liberal, anti-police policies in Austin, Texas have taken a devastating human toll.
Local filmmaker Jaime Hammonds captured the crisis and created a map of the city’s approximately 168 homeless camps, 10,000 of which live on the streets.
The filmmaker told The New York Post that the camps are far more common than many people know, and have encroached on popular tourist destinations, warning that an “even greater threat to public safety could loom as the sites remain largely unregulated by the Democratic city’s leadership.”
The City of Austin claims police are enforcing the camping ban. “Wherever possible, the least intrusive and lowest level of force that achieves voluntary compliance is the preferred method,” city spokeswoman Jenny LaCoste-Caputo told The Post. progressive enforcement in practice [going from] verbal warning for detention.”
Violating the camping ban, however, is only a class C misdemeanor, meaning the highest level of enforcement allowed is usually a subpoena, the city added.
The blue city didn’t say how its own wake-up policy exacerbated the homeless problem. Immediately shortfall of nearly 400 officersonly emergency calls involving life-threatening actions are forwarded to 911.
Shocking map shows explosion of homelessness in Austin, Texas with 10,000 people in 168 camps https://t.co/sWT8G4LnTr pic.twitter.com/aftJlq6XTo
— New York Post (@nypost) June 23, 2023
Hammond describes the crisis on his own Twitter profile.
Many people in this city are finally recognizing what a huge problem homelessness is in Austin.
The City of Austin is not addressing the problem as it should. The problem is getting worse, not better.
— DASH (@DocumentingATX) June 23, 2023