How Are The Crime and Homeless in Late 2022??? (Clarksville: homes, living in)

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by TedH71

I used to live in Austin for over 25 years before I moved. They always have had the homeless. Always. They don't really bother you but I heard the camping ban is now being enforced. I moved out before the governor or mayor of the city allowed inner city camping and I heard it got really bad to the point you couldn't park under the highway in order to go partying on 6th street. I'm hoping to go visit Austin in a few weeks and I'll see if they've changed or not. I moved out 16 years ago.

Nope, not really. Even with the bans and stuff, there's a large homeless population downtown and surrounding area. Every time I have to go to the federal courthouse in the morning, it's a scene out of skid row. It is what it is.

[ScoPro]

Keep putting out the word that the CoA is spending hundreds of millions on the homeless. It is an open invitation for thousands more to come.
And is there any accountability of where all these millions are going?
How much is the city spending per capita on the taxpayer citizens vs. the homeless who produce nothing but problems for city emergency services and create unsightly litter & pollution all around their squalid camps.
Not to mention unchecked criminal activity & harassment of the citizenry.

[TedH71]

Part of the issue is the homeless primarily come from several places. Are you aware that Austin has several mental institutions where the mentally ill people used to be forcibly made to stay and often for life? Yeah, the state figured out years ago that it was too expensive and changed policies to the point where the person coming in had to get counseling/therapy PLUS had to be taking medications and once they got better, they were basically released to roam the streets. Usually it was either 2 to 4 weeks or 90 days, I forget which. I've had some friends who ended up having to go to those facilities and that's how I learned about the system.

If I remember right from 16 years ago before I moved, I found out that there's a younger element of the homeless population that just have decided they don't want to work and would rather make a living creating art work and selling them on the streets. The high cost of living doesn't help either. I remember talking with one homeless young woman who just had a baby and was living on the streets with her baby daddy. They were moving frequently because they knew the authorities were trying to find them to forcibly have her give up her baby. She said with no address or phone or whatnot, she couldn't even apply for work and yes, she knew where to get help but just didn't trust very many people. I have wondered what happened to her family since I moved.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Nope, not really. Even with the bans and stuff, there's a large homeless population downtown and surrounding area. Every time I have to go to the federal courthouse in the morning, it's a scene out of skid row. It is what it is.

Eh, to be fair it is way better than it was prior to the bans. It is about what it was prior to the city allowing open camping. When the city permitted it, there were camps underneath 183 between I-35 and MoPac … just endless camps, and every overpass filled to the brim with camps between MoPac and TX-45. under 6th was also filled with camps as well. I-35 and 290 / Airport Blvd also had plenty of camps in the grassy areas between the ramps… Most of that is gone, There are still some there but it’s nothing like it was prior to the ban. The parks I can’t speak for as I don’t go to them often but in doing Uber and going around Downtown both before and after the ban, the has been significantly less camping… it’s still there but it’s better than it was prior to the ban.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by TedH71

Part of the issue is the homeless primarily come from several places. Are you aware that Austin has several mental institutions where the mentally ill people used to be forcibly made to stay and often for life? Yeah, the state figured out years ago that it was too expensive and changed policies to the point where the person coming in had to get counseling/therapy PLUS had to be taking medications and once they got better, they were basically released to roam the streets. Usually it was either 2 to 4 weeks or 90 days, I forget which. I've had some friends who ended up having to go to those facilities and that's how I learned about the system.

If I remember right from 16 years ago before I moved, I found out that there's a younger element of the homeless population that just have decided they don't want to work and would rather make a living creating art work and selling them on the streets. The high cost of living doesn't help either. I remember talking with one homeless young woman who just had a baby and was living on the streets with her baby daddy. They were moving frequently because they knew the authorities were trying to find them to forcibly have her give up her baby. She said with no address or phone or whatnot, she couldn't even apply for work and yes, she knew where to get help but just didn't trust very many people. I have wondered what happened to her family since I moved.

Back in the early 1960s the movement to depopulate the state mental institutions began in California after that state’s psychiatric association lobbied their legislature that involuntary commitment was not necessary because the new “wonder drugs” were a better solution.
Naturally they convinced the politicians who agreed and emptied out their state facilities so the psychiatrists could treat them as outpatients. That trend spread nationwide through the 1970s because everyone knew California knew better and was the leader of innovation. Same goes for elementary & secondary education trends.
So that led to where we are today.
Thanks California!

At least Texas has recently began to revamp the state’s mental health hospitals to the tune of hundreds of millions, but that’s just a start and should continue.
Next the issue of involuntary commitment should be addressed by the legislature & courts to make it more efficient to get the worst cases off the street and into treatment whether they like it or not.

[ashbeeigh]

Mental health services are severely under funded in the state of Texas. The city of Austin lost a 32 bed inpatient facility this summer which has put an enormous pressure on the already strapped public supports in the city. The remodel/rebuild of Austin state hospital will not add more beds and the waitlist and qualifications to get into ASH is long and hard. Involuntary commitment is a very high bar and is pretty standard through the United States. It is not taken lightly when a person has to be court ordered to receiver services. After that burden is proven, then you have to find the bed, which I just illustrated is darn near impossible. I will not feed into any other mental health debates as this is my profession. I’ll let y’all hash out your individual differences and keep to myself.

[ScoPro]

Mental health services are severely underfunded everywhere in this country.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Eh, to be fair it is way better than it was prior to the bans. It is about what it was prior to the city allowing open camping. When the city permitted it, there were camps underneath 183 between I-35 and MoPac … just endless camps, and every overpass filled to the brim with camps between MoPac and TX-45. under 6th was also filled with camps as well. I-35 and 290 / Airport Blvd also had plenty of camps in the grassy areas between the ramps… Most of that is gone, There are still some there but it’s nothing like it was prior to the ban. The parks I can’t speak for as I don’t go to them often but in doing Uber and going around Downtown both before and after the ban, the has been significantly less camping… it’s still there but it’s better than it was prior to the ban.

Before the ban it was intolerable with people camping on the sidewalk obstructing folks from walking. But I’m downtown several days a week and republic square, especially in the morning, it as I described. There is open camping. They’re relocated every now and then only to return at dusk. Now there’s camping in vacant tracts of land by apartment complexes and people sleeping on benches and the sidewalk.

Also want to add that I’ve worked downtown nearly my entire time in Texas so I just don’t think much has changed.

[done working]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Back in the early 1960s the movement to depopulate the state mental institutions began in California after that state’s psychiatric association lobbied their legislature that involuntary commitment was not necessary because the new “wonder drugs” were a better solution.
Naturally they convinced the politicians who agreed and emptied out their state facilities so the psychiatrists could treat them as outpatients. That trend spread nationwide through the 1970s because everyone knew California knew better and was the leader of innovation. Same goes for elementary & secondary education trends.
So that led to where we are today.
Thanks California!

At least Texas has recently began to revamp the state’s mental health hospitals to the tune of hundreds of millions, but that’s just a start and should continue.
Next the issue of involuntary commitment should be addressed by the legislature & courts to make it more efficient to get the worst cases off the street and into treatment whether they like it or not.

Your history lesson is wrong

The ACLU and the supreme court ruled in 60's that non volentary incarceration was against the law and Regan as governor signed the lanterman act that out lawed instituting people against their will. then place like lanterman finally closed without funding and the of course like all laws the supposed local communities did not build ones promised by the act.

Then the 60's drug fest took off and more and morsel inflected people ended up on the streets with issues.
If you want to blame calif that is ok with me but put the blame on the aclu commie lawyers who started the mess.

[cheeva]

The situation of the homeless has improved somewhat. They are now living in more expensive areas, like Tarrytown, Zilker, and Clarksville.

Wish I could live in those areas, but I can't afford it.