Homeless in Austin (St. Jo: leasing agent, insurance, employment)

[CarnivalGal]

There is a homeless camp close to the company my husband works for. They have cameras outside the building. So far at night, they have caught people bathing in water from their spigots and using their electricity to charge their phones. OK, that's no big deal. But then they somehow got a hold of a ladder, climbed on their roof, and stole all the copper from their a/c units. Then they stole the batteries out of the trucks. Then they threw a rock through a window and were able to steal some computers before the police came (alarm went off, police responded).

In fact, police reports have been filed each time. All of the incidents are caught on tape. But the police have maintained that they "don't disturb homeless camps," so nothing has been done.

This is a single-standing building, not a center or office complex. Their only options are fence it in (expensive) or hire security at night (also expensive).

Is this a common policy for APD? It just seems ridiculous. This is not a large company. It's relatively small, locally owned...it's not like they have really deep pockets. And we have been quite good friends with the owners for decades. They are good people. It's just so maddening.

[RooCeleste]

I'd go to the media.

[ashbeeigh]

I'd contact the community liaison and your city council person to get a handle on it. It may also be that it just takes a while to investigate things.

[AusParent]

Apparently someone gave the business bad information about City of Austin law enforcement. A business that generates employment for Austin residents and revenue for the City of Austin has the right to support from the City of Austin.

The business has the following recourse with suggested order of progression:

- APD's neighborhood "district representative" (see below) who can do things like the following: 1) work with property owners to clean properties with homeless camps, 2) engage the City of Austin's Homeless Outreach Street Team
- City of Austin Homeless Outreach Team which engages and coordinates multiple agencies to disband and direct homeless camps to appropriate resources (see below)
- City of Austin's Citizen Assistance program (see below)
- City of Austin code department because homeless camps involve multiple code violations (see below)
- City council member who is accountable to this business (see below)
- APD district representative's region commander (skip the APD sergeant)
- APD chief of police Brian Manley (see below)
- Mayor Steve Adler (see below)
- Social sites like City Data to publicize the issue and request help

APD District Representatives | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
APD Administration | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
Homeless Outreach Street Team | Police | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
Citizen Assistance | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
Code | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin
Government | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin

DM for any questions and more resources.

[CarnivalGal]

The camp is not actually on their company property, just next to it. So they (the company owners / representatives) can't go remove things from the camp.

The police have come out no less than half a dozen times. Every officer has told them there's nothing they can do. Just because they suspect the people on the tapes are from the camp, doesn't mean they can just go on "private property" where the camp is and search it. Police told them to put up No Trespassing signs and hope they can get there fast enough next time to get someone for trespassing.

They are going to escalate it, but everyone they've contacted seems to be in no hurry to do anything about it. It will be months (or longer) before any action is taken. In the meantime, they keep getting victimized.

[centralaustinite]

There are things that can be done. The first is find out who exactly owns the lot where the camp is -- use TCAD. The owner of the lot needs to get involved, the owner of that lot can give APD permission to act more aggressively to arrest them for trespass. This can take a bit of time but it is effective, this technique has been used to address panhandling/homeless at I35/St. John's for example. The neighbors could do little until the property owners of the lots (gas stations) got involved.

Without the involvement of whatever entity owns the neighboring lot, it is going to be a much slower process.

Surprised to hear that copper wiring was taken, I thought copper prices had dropped so much that it is no longer a viable item to steal.

[CarnivalGal]

They have identified the owners of the lot. It is a large company who owns hundreds if not thousands of office / commercial properties. Just the process to contact them will take forever. And then they have to be allowed time to respond, which they probably never will. Then another attempt has to be made to contact them, rinse and repeat. It will be many, many months before that avenue will be exhausted, and even then, there's no guarantee that they will do anything.

They are going through all the proper channels with the city and the property owners. But in the meantime, they are still being victimized. And police say the won't or can't do anything about it.

[hound 109]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

They have identified the owners of the lot. It is a large company who owns hundreds if not thousands of office/commercial properties. Just the process to contact them will take forever. And then they have to be allowed time to respond, which they probably never will. Then another attempt has to be made to contact them, rinse and repeat. It will be many, many months before that avenue will be exhausted, and even then, there's no guarantee that they will do anything.

They are going through all the proper channels with the city and the property owners. But in the meantime, they are still being victimized. And police say the won't or can't do anything about it.

Maybe offer a free "bus ride" for the vagrants over to the Corporate Headquarters? Give them a sack lunch and tell them that Dinner & Tonight's Lodging will be provided by the CEO working inside the big building.

Tell them that the AC feels great inside & to be sure and press the top floor when they get on the elevator.

I also like the idea of calling the local news.


Carnival Gal....what part of town is this vacant lot located in?

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

They have identified the owners of the lot. It is a large company who owns hundreds if not thousands of office / commercial properties. Just the process to contact them will take forever. And then they have to be allowed time to respond, which they probably never will. Then another attempt has to be made to contact them, rinse and repeat. It will be many, many months before that avenue will be exhausted, and even then, there's no guarantee that they will do anything.

They are going through all the proper channels with the city and the property owners. But in the meantime, they are still being victimized. And police say the won't or can't do anything about it.

Why do you think that? A larger company is more likely to have processes and people in place to handle this type of thing, more likely to have contact information publicly available, and more likely to be on twitter -- the exception would be if the landowner is a life insurance company who is doing land banking. Is the lot completely undeveloped? Is there a developer or leasing agent involved? I would take a property owned by a large company over an individual or estate any day. A million ways to pressure a large company!

[AusParent]

The media has done a number of stories on how the homeless population affects local residents, businesses and property owners. Ex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2uFAotkCFA.

More suggestions include: fence with barbed wire, motion activated lights, security alarm with phone notification. APD recommends cameras. Cameras are mostly useless. They get vandalized or stripped for copper. Resolution may be inadequate. Perpetrators cover their faces and license plates. Etc.

The City of Austin needs to address the issue through policy and programs. Meanwhile the issue either remains in a neighborhood causing damage or moves to another neighborhood when residents and businesses complain.

This business will have to be extremely persistent to get help from City of Austin. Perhaps team up with other nearby businesses. There is force in numbers. Don't vote for unresponsive representatives. Good luck to them.