PrintTexas legislators ban homeless 'camping' statewide
Across the blue cities of America, city officials have turned their public spaces into vast and expanding homeless camps.
That leaves such cities without public spaces, and puts the quality of life at zero. Portland, San Francisco, Orange County, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, all spring to mind.
In such places, we have seen whole stretches of places like Venice Beach become a freakish third world tent shantytown, with the camping homeless blocking roads, scaring children, giving cash to drug dealers, getting intoxicated, throwing trash, boosting cars, theatening those who don't want to give them spare change, and doing their bodily functions in public places, if not on private property. The same is true in Los Angeles, New York, and the rest. When the homeless take over, the public has no choice but to stay away.
In Texas, though, the legislators passed a new state law banning this kind of "camping," coming up with the obvious:
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Thursday passed House Bill 1925, a statewide homeless camping ban, with 28 in favor and three voting against.Under the bill, people cannot camp in a public place unless authorized. Authorized camping includes camping for recreational purposes or if the property has been approved for sheltering people experiencing homelessness.
People who violate the legislation can be ticketed with a fine of up to $500, but only after the officer gives the person the option to leave, tells them where camping is allowed and educates them on resources available to help the homeless. The original bill passed by the House also allowed officers enforcing the law to arrest violators, but the Senate removed that provision. Now, someone can only be arrested if they are presenting a public safety threat or breaking a law.
If the person is arrested, HB 1925 requires the officer to either allow the person to take their personal property or store it until the person can get it.
In the House, the statewide ban was approved by a vote of 85-56, with most of the opposition to it coming from Democrats, although the legislation had sponsors from both parties.
It might actually work, though and may restore some semblance of quality of life in some places.
That's more than legislators of blue cities across America "experiencing homelessness" alongside the actual homeless, who include drug addicts and bums, have done.
San Francisco, for one, spends more on the homeless than it does on the police. Their huge public spending on such "services," last year putting the homeless up at grand hotels such as the Mark Hopkins and bringing them drugs, as part of the room service are famous. Yet the homeless camps even there have only gotten bigger.
Halting the camping, and the social dynamic of that homeless camping, which is typically a drug dealer and his clients all around him, is something they haven't thought of.
Perhaps one reason the measure passed so handily in Texas is that the lawmakers themselves, going to work, were actually affected by the camping.
Now we've got the laboratory of the states going on, and we can see the San Francisco and Texas models side by side. We know how COVID went for both California and Texas. Any guesses as to which state is going to have a handle on this?
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