Texas Bill 987 ---- To be voted on soon

[Steven@147]

Austin was getting pretty bad, trashy squalor tent camps that stink to high heaven under the over passes, they even had a big fire at one of the camps inside a drainage tunnel, begging at nearly every stop light on Ben White Blvd. 6th street venues got really bad with stabbing's, fights and such between homeless people begging and assaulting tourist. Not good for SXSW, ACL, Formula 1 Racing and a host of other main Austin attractions. The State tried to do something about it, the Governor and Austin City Mayor Steve Adler were throwing words at each other, the city wouldn't do anything about it. The State donated a property to give the homeless a free safe place to camp even indoor facilities with running water, showers, transportation, assistance. Then they cleaned up the the horrible trashy under passes in Austin. But no the homeless wouldn't stay in the provided free camps, they moved back to the underpasses so they could continue to beg at stop lights and tie up traffic and now its worse than ever before.
It doesn't surprise me this Texas bill has come up.

[rootusrootus]

According to the discussion I listened to places like Home Depot, Walmart, restaurants while being private property is where the public gathers so
those places are included in the Law.

This is correct. It's why cops can and do give out tickets for people doing donuts in privately owned parking lots. If it's accessible to the general public and designed for the public to access, it counts as a public location.

[D2Reid]

Uninformed law makers attempting to solve a specific problem, I get it. Unfortunately they are trying to band-aid the problem. But I don't blame them, how do we solve the homeless problem. I get that bad life decisions have led to their current destitution, can't fix the past. Can anyone offer a responsible solution?

[rootusrootus]

... bad life decisions have led to their current destitution ... Can anyone offer a responsible solution?

More often than not, it's not bad life choices, it's mental illness. We stopped treating that, and homelessness is their next stop.

Anyway, solving it is pretty straightforward. Give them a room to live in and food stamps. Doesn't have to be big, fancy, special, or whatever. Completely forget about any sort of moral hazard. Once these people have a permanent address, they are easy to find so social workers can keep them on their meds. They may not become a net productive citizen, but we can reduce the cost. Currently runs about 35K per year per person on average to deal with homelessness the way we do now. Giving them a place to live and welfare to survive on, plus meds, runs about half that.

Salt Lake City actually did this for a while, with great results.

[FR8TFLYER]

Disagree that more is mental illness rather than bad choices. Certainly there is mental illness but not the majority. Disgusting how much it cost us who work and pay our taxes, GMAFB.

[attaboy]

Several years ago a homeless guy living under I-85 close to downtown Atlanta started a fire under the expressway.
It got out of control and ignited a huge DOT supply of various plastic piping. Result I-85 burned and collapsed. it
was closed for months and cost 10s of millions to repair. Georgia used to house the mentally ill in a huge facility
in Milledgville, GA. It was thought they were being deprived of their rights and the facility was closed. Now the
mentally ill are on their own (I wonder what their family is doing to help). Those who are homeless by choice or bad decisions
are milking the system.
Bob A.

[rootusrootus]

Disagree that more is mental illness rather than bad choices. Certainly there is mental illness but not the majority. Disgusting how much it cost us who work and pay our taxes, GMAFB.

Okay, just ignore the 'how they got there' part. Regardless of the underlying cause, it costs 50% less just to provide housing.

At this point we've decided that being able to judge them guilty for their sins is worth more to us than the tax dollars taken out of our pockets. Maybe that's the right choice, maybe not, but it's definitely not the most fiscally conservative choice.

[No-ladder]

Let me share the story on how I became homeless.
November 8 2018 I woke up in my 2800 sq ft custom home, got ready for work, kissed my wife goodbye, little did I know that we would be homeless and sleeping in a tent in a Walmart parking that evening!
Wildfire took our home, our community and created 15000 plus homeless people in hours.
We have recovered and we have a home....many of our former community still do not

I look at homelessness much differently now.
Am I still cynical... yes.
do I still believe that everyone chooses their situation....no
do I have an answer for the homeless situation....no
We fled California and one of the top 5 reasons for leaving was the homeless and its associated problems

Oh and that RV that was our camping/bug out rig...it burned to the ground also... there is just no time in a wildfire.

[rootusrootus]

Let me share the story on how I became homeless.
November 8 2018 I woke up in my 2800 sq ft custom home, got ready for work, kissed my wife goodbye, little did I know that we would be homeless and sleeping in a tent in a Walmart parking that evening!
Wildfire took our home, our community and created 15000 plus homeless people in hours.
We have recovered and we have a home....many of our former community still do not

I look at homelessness much differently now.
Am I still cynical... yes.
do I still believe that everyone chooses their situation....no
do I have an answer for the homeless situation....no
We fled California and one of the top 5 reasons for leaving was the homeless and its associated problems

Oh and that RV that was our camping/bug out rig...it burned to the ground also... there is just no time in a wildfire.

Oh my, that's a nightmare. I can only imagine what it must have been like. The closest we got was last year when the wildfires got us to a level 2 evac warning, but didn't make it to our neighborhood. Tensions were high! I'm glad to hear that you've recovered and gotten your life back in order, but what a huge hassle that must have been.

[No-ladder]

Because you said you got stage 2 warnings
I am going off topic here so I'll be brief
Offsite storage of your back up stuff...another town preferably
Fire proof safes are not fire proof! Unless you paid a lot for it, yes that means fire proof gun safes too
Go when they say go! 85 people perished in my community, most in their cars, sitting in traffic jams