City Proposes Daily Homeless Camp Sweeps

Austin officials are planning to dramatically increase the number of homeless camp sweeps the city conducts, starting this summer. These sweeps – in which police and Austin Resource Recovery workers descend on camps, give their residents an hour to gather possessions, and then throw their remaining belongings into dumpsters – are controversial. Advocates for the homeless community say they are cruel, expensive, and actually perpetuate homelessness. 

The plans for the sweeps are summarized in a leaked six-page draft document which surfaced last week. The document, the legitimacy of which has not been disputed by the city’s Homeless Strategies and Operations Department, begins by stating the rationale for the sweeps, saying that Austin’s 311 call center takes over 700 requests a month for camp cleanup services, far more than the city can handle. It recommends the creation of six teams to clean camps daily, Monday through Friday, each consisting of two APD officers and several ARR personnel. Altogether, 42 people would work on the sweeps. 

The document proposes that three teams be assigned to clear out camps in parks, green spaces, and neighborhoods. Two more would clear camps near highways, bridges, and waterways. A sixth would collect litter. The document emphasizes the city will prevent homeless people from returning to camps that have been cleared.

Paulette Soltani of the homelessness advocacy group VOCAL-TX told us it feels like HSO is shifting its resources toward criminalizing homelessness, since the department has said it will no longer embed outreach workers in the groups conducting the sweeps. “I wish our community understood that there’s no way for us to solve this problem through the enforcement of sweeps,” Soltani said. “People come back to camps because they need access to services. They need access to food.”

After the draft document circulated over the weekend, HSO Director David Gray released a memo on Monday stating that the department will “ensure individuals at encampment sites are engaged and offered services in advance of any enforcement activity.” He alluded to the pressure from Austinites to clear the camps, emphasizing that the reestablishment of previously cleared camps erodes “public confidence” in the city.  

The city cleared one such camp at the Terrazas Branch Library, just east of I-35 on Cesar Chavez, on March 31. Soltani called the sweep inhumane at a press conference last week, describing how police and ARR staff trashed tents, sleeping bags, and other personal items without prior warning, as the owners stood in line waiting for lunch at the Angel House Soup Kitchen across the street. She said the operation, like the proposed plan, appeared to be designed to make the unhoused disappear from the sight of nearby neighbors. 

“If the city was genuinely putting the best foot forward to support vulnerable people on our streets, they wouldn’t start with a conversation about camp sweeps,” Soltani said. “They would be presenting a plan that was centered on how to get housing, how to expand shelter, how to expand services. But that’s not what this is.” 

Gray said in his memo that he will discuss the proposed sweeps with City Council on May 5. The city leaders we spoke with said it is a complex issue. Mayor Kirk Watson told us that Austinites want to help the homeless, but they also want clean and safe public spaces, and that HSO’s proposal is thoughtful, compassionate, and practical. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said she wants to ensure that basic human dignity is centered in any plan. CM Ryan Alter recalled a series of sweeps conducted last fall that cost over $800,000, saying they ultimately did not lead many people out of homelessness. 

“At the end of the day, it’s always a math problem,” Alter said. “If you don’t have enough beds for the people on the streets, it doesn’t matter how many times you go sweep.”

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