Editorial: Lifting the camping ban without a plan was a failure, but Prop B won't help
By American-Statesman Editorial Board
Cities have long grappled with homelessness. But in this moment in Austin — with tents lining the breezy shoreline of Lady Bird Lake, with burgeoning encampments spilling out from highway underpasses and popping up closer to neighborhoods, with the public safety hazards measured in charred structures and frostbitten, amputated feet — homelessness is the consummate crisis.
Austin’s last point-in-time count put the homeless population around 2,500, a number that has surely grown over the past year. Many of those folks live in desperate conditions in our public spaces.