Keep Austin Weird and Welcoming

A few weeks back I got my hair cut at Gaitan's Barbershop in Austin. It's become a tradition since the first time I lived in Austin and sometimes a little sad because invariably when I walk into the shop there are no other customers. Hopefully, that's just because I try to pick times when no one else will be there but I fear that business may not be hopping--he's getting up in years and I sometimes suspect his vision may not be what it used to be; this is a little worrying when he pulls out the straight razor but he still does a great job.

But anyway, the last time I was there a barefoot homeless guy wandered in and sat down. This is one of the big pluses of living in Austin--interesting and strange people lurk around every corner. Unfortunately, this fellow was difficult to understand so I let the conversation drop and concentrated on not moving too much in the barber chair--no need to make myself into a moving target. When Gaitan finished I went on my merry way.

This morning, while I was reading the paper, I got to the story that described the fire at Mother's Cafe--a local vegetarian eatery that I haven't been to all that often but I've always enjoyed the fact that it exists. Actually, I tried to eat there the last time I went to Gaitan's (the cafe is right across the street) but they weren't open for lunch and I didn't stick around to wait. Apparently, the garden seating area was gutted and there was damage to other portions of the restaurant, but the kitchen was relatively unscathed--they hope to reopen in a few days, serving food in tents set-up outside. The fire resulted in an estimated $500,000 in damages to the restaurant.

What caused the fire? The story explained that a homeless man who lived near Mother's had started a small fire outside the cafe in order to cook some steaks. He fell asleep and when he awoke the flames were already spreading through the restaurant. There was a picture of the man in the paper and it was my buddy from the barber shop--his name is John Evans and his nickname is "Roadie."

The police have decided not to press charges against Mr. Evans because there was no intent to damage the cafe, it was an accident. Mother's co-owner, Cameron Alexander, agreed with this decision and said he was familiar with Evans. Mr. Evans was apparently very apologetic about the fire.

I love the fact that large portions of the Austin community are accepting and supportive of the homeless community here--Gaitan didn't blink when Mr. Evans walked into his shop barefoot and Mr. Alexander agreed with the decision not to charge Mr. Evans in the fire. But the acceptance isn't universal--Austin has ordinances which criminalize camping in public areas, aggressive solicitation, sitting or lying down in downtown business areas, urinating or defecating in public and bathing or "damaging" a public water source. The city code of ordinances makes these offenses Class C Misdemeanors, with a maximum fine of $500.

One can certainly debate certain aspects of the above ordinances--for instance, it's definitely a bad idea for someone to be bathing in my drinking water and the urination ordinance is probably used as much against 6th Street Partiers as against the homeless. And I believe that some of these measures are still being challenged in the courts. But to set up a system that makes homelessness a criminal offense is wrong and immoral--a prior ban on camping was ruled unconstitutional. Granted, accepting the homeless population can create difficulties for business owners (and I hope the business community won't take the Mother's fire as justification for harsh penalties against the homeless) but there must be an effort to balance the interests of the community at large and the least fortunate among us.

Why is such criminalization immoral? It is specifically targeted at acts that are carried out by individuals who live on the streets because they cannot afford housing. Much of the chronic homeless population is plagued with mental health problems and so the claim that the homeless "choose" to be homeless is specious--many simply are not functional enough to lead a lifestyle that would afford them shelter. Essentially, these are people who are doing their best to get by and criminalizing their activities is criminalizing their best efforts at survival. If a city must have a deterrent to certain public activities, that city should ensure that people have reasonable alternatives to meet their biological needs (food, shelter, sanitary facilities) and the penalties should be civil rather than criminal. Creating a criminal record, albeit a misdemeanor record, is one more impediment to individuals overcoming their circumstances and encourages them to be transitory rather than setting down roots in a community (of course, this is part of the goal--to get them to move on).

Austin does have a creative court system called the Downtown Austin Community Court that has a lot of latitude in how it deals with such cases. The court combines elements of rehabilitation with their penalties and is closely connected with social services that can help individuals who are charged with offenses. In addition to the downtown court, there are also courts for the east side of town and for UT's West Campus area. Honestly, this is a very good, informal court that appears to minimize the risk of offenders getting a criminal record and works hard to help those charged with crimes, but that doesn't remove the underlying unfairness of criminalizing homelessness--it only mitigates some of the effects.

More information on Austin homelessness and community court programs can be found at:

Downtown Austin Community Court http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/comcourt/overview.htm
Short article about the DACC: http://groups.msn.com/AustinCTOSHCommunity/spotlightonthedacc.msnw

Center for Court Innovation http://www.courtinnovation.org/
Community Partnership for the Homeless-Austin http://austinhomeless.org/index.php
Austin Foundation for the Homeless http://www.foundationforthehomeless.org/
Caritas of Austin http://www.caritasofaustin.org/
Front Steps Austin http://www.frontsteps.org/
Overview of community courts from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/bja/183452.txt

I'll try to find more information about the current legal status of these ordinances and update this posting when I do.