Austin's Houdinis

Left to right: Houdini and Skid Row, Los Angeles

I learned about Skid Row by watching a Netflix series "Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel". The series showcases the history of Cecil Hotel (located at Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles) and the mysterious disappearance of a young woman who went to visit LA for the first time. She was looking for the thrill of spending a few days in a low budget hotel right at Downtown. The young woman was found dead in one of the water tanks of the hotel, investigations pointing to a case of mental health issues followed by suicide. But here I'm interested in the much more complex and delicate urban issue on the background of the tragic story.

Skid Row is basically a downtown district that was assigned to be the house of homeless people and all of other marginalized components of society. The city's government instituted legislation to force hotels in the area to rent rooms for low-income population, so the homeless could be contained inside a pre-selected number of blocks in downtown. This measure was implemented to make sure certain parts of Downtown could be redeveloped, giving place to gentrified real-estate. As described at the Skid Row Project website :

"In the 1970s, Skid Row narrowly escaped a wave of "redevelopment" that brought an end to nearby Bunker Hill and other low-income communities in the city, the result of a citizen-led effort to rethink the neighborhood as a community for recovery. The deal was born as much from a community-driven effort as it was from political expediency; nearby council members were unnerved at the thought that the destruction of Skid Row might mean an influx of homeless in their neighborhoods.

The plan gave rise to more housing, planned parks and other development, but it was quickly cut short by crisis: rising unemployment, an uptick in violent crime, the crack epidemic. The closure of mental health institutions further flooded the area with successive waves of homelessness. More recently, Skid Row has become ground zero for a massive, countywide housing shortage. Still, it remains among the most resilient and least-understood communities in L.A. — despite being one of its oldest." ((https://skidrowhistoryproject.com/index.html)

The deplorable situation at Skid Row got so out of control over the decades that a few days ago a federal judge condemned the city in a lawsuit, filled by a group of business owners, residents and community leaders called the LA Alliance for Human Rights, according to The Guardian.

"A federal judge overseeing a sweeping lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles ordered the city and county to find shelter for all unhoused residents of Skid Row within 180 days.

In a fiery 110-page order, Judge David O Carter on Tuesday condemned Los Angeles officials’ inability to address the rise in homelessness in the region.

(...)

Carter ordered the city and county to find shelter for all women and children on Skid Row within 90 days, and every homeless person in the downtown area must have a place to stay by mid-October.

In addition, Carter mandated the city auditor examine all public money spent in recent years to combat homelessness, including funds from a 2016 bond measure approved by voters to create 10,000 housing units over a decade. That project has been slow to ramp up." (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/21/los-angeles-homeless-skid-row-shelter-judge)

Meanwhile in Austin, citizens are called to vote from April 19th - April 27th on Proposition B. The ballot reads as follows:

"Shall an ordinance be adopted that would create a criminal offense and a penalty for sitting or lying down on a public sidewalk or sleeping outdoors in and near the Downtown area and the area around the University of Texas campus; create a criminal offense and penalty for solicitation, defined as requesting money or another thing of value, at specific hours and locations or for solicitation in a public area that is deemed aggressive in manner; create a criminal offense and penalty for camping in any public area not designated by the Parks and Recreation Department?" (https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-skid-row-mural-20140824-story.html)

The proposition aims to criminalize homelessness and soliciting in Austin's Downtown, an area that has been experiencing intense real state development. All development is fueled by the influence of new Tech companies to the city and migrating of high qualified working populations to the city. The lack of housing inventory and the inflated housing market, together with the explosion of a global pandemic and increased unemployment poses a naive but logical question: is the rise of homeless population at Austin a consequence of the 2019 lift of the camping ban in Austin?

According to "Save Austin Now" website, the organization behind Proposition B, unsheltered population started to increase in 2020:

Save Austin Now website

The solution according to the organization is to create campsites exclusive for homeless people, like this one located at Highway 183 in southeast Austin. On the other hand, the city has already purchased 2 motels, destined to house the homeless out of downtown.

So we all are left with a difficult subject to digest. Austin is not the unique city in the world where camping on the streets is a criminal offense; Houston also has restrictions for camping. My hometown, Porto Alegre, also makes constant efforts to remove people from public/historic landmarks. What upsets me as an urbanist is the course of action of politic forces in question, and the effort of always making the chain break on the weakest link. Why can't the ballot propose heavy investments and deadlines for the execution of affordable housing, aggressive expansion of social services, and constant review of expenditures of public budgets? Why can't we live in a society where the governments, no matter if in a City, State, or Federal level, no matter in a right or left political position, can be charged and pressed to show the results of their work... basically, why can't they just be pressured to show results of the work THEY are being payed to do?

Naive rumblings? Probably... I am just tired of the society where people are forced to become Houdini. The easiest way for all social issues is usually to put handcuffs on people, and just wait for them fo disappear.