Richard Troxell is the President and Founder of House the Homeless in Austin, Texas. First and foremost he is an advocate for the rights and dignity of the homeless. Today as this blog posts the Health and Human Services Committee of the City of Austin is debating whether to amend the no sit/no lying down ordinance to exclude people with verifiable known disabilities. Incredulously there is a lot of opposition. Here is Richard's point of view. We would welcome other points of view and would gladly post. Needless to say I support Richard's efforts to amend the ordinance.
472 of the
501 people surveyed in this most recent survey felt that they periodically
needed to sit down and rest from time to time, but 94% said they were unable to
do so as they could not find a bench.
Compounding the situation, there exists a "Quality of Life"
ordinance in Austin that prevents people from sitting or lying down making them
subject to fines of up to $500. This
ordinance contains only one medical exception and that's for people already
sitting in a wheel chair. There aren't
even exceptions for people on crutches or using orthopedic leg braces. With health concerns ranging from Degenerative
Heart Disease to Parkinson's Disease to Degenerative Rheumatoid Arthritis, half
of the homeless population is in need of exceptions to the ordinance.
We are now
promoting 19 possible exceptions that range from Disability Award letters from
the Social Security Administration or the Veterans Administration to
participant letters in the David Powell-AIDS Program to people standing in line
at a health clinic and so on. Two city-wide stakeholder meetings resulted in
two additional recommended exemptions: evidence of taking psychiatric
medications or when the heat index hits 100 degrees or more.
House the Homeless has met with all members of
City Council and received favorable
support. We pointed out that if
exceptions are granted (as they should be) then people will be sitting down all
over the city. We do not feel that
people suffering disabilities should be sitting on the sidewalks etc. House the
Homeless took 350 signatures of people requesting benches to the Mayor. We think that as we encourage people to be
more "Green" and to leave their automobiles to create a "world
class city" we should provide an ample number of benches to accommodate
all citizens. This should include pregnant women, people with Christmas
packages and those suffering disabilities.
In response, Mayor Lee Leffingwell has directed the City Council Health
and Human Services Committee to review the 19 "exemptions" requested
by HTH and consider benches as part
of the mitigation response.
Some social
service providers have been opposed to benches suggesting their use may lead to
illegal drug sales. HTH contends that
drugs can be sold in either a sitting or standing position and in any event,
this is a question of enforcement. The benches that House the Homeless
recommends have center dividers so as to
deter lying down.
The
"Stakeholders" who attended the two meetings consisted of the
Downtown Austin Alliance, The Austin Chamber of Commerce, about 10 uniformed
police officers, their attorney, an attorney for Travis County, Downtown
Community Court, City Staffers, a representative from the Omni and the Driscoll
Hotels, downtown neighbors, representatives from the Austin Resource Center for
the Homeless, ARCH and a representative from Caritas. They were all joined in opposition and led by
Charles Betts from the Downtown Austin Alliance. As a group and to the last person, they
opposed any exceptions or any additional benches intended to be a response to
this issue. Really? A doctor working for
the United States Government, determines that a person is disabled after a
process that often takes up to 15 months to complete its findings is somehow unacceptable
to this group? Or finding of a disability of a Military Medical Review Team for
a person willing to sacrifice a leg in Afghanistan is unworthy of either an exception or a
bench?
Today, HTH
continues to look toward the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, as possible
legal recourse to provide the health relief associated with this issue.
Finally,
City staff members have reported that, "the Ordinance is
working." Really? For whom? In reviewing COA No Sit/No Lying Down ord.
citations secured under the Open Records Act, the Community Court showed 2,729 tickets were issued between
January 2009 through December 31st 2009. 70 tickets were subsequently dismissed
with 708 convictions. So while the HTH
Survey indicated 48% of these folks
had major disabilities, only 2.6% were dismissed on
the basis of disability through the court. At the same time, it has been observed by
advocates that this ordinance has been used indiscriminately to sweep areas of
people regardless of their disabilities.
Using the Community Court as a filtering mechanism in this instance, has
proven unduly burdensome on this disabled population and ineffective. It would
seem more humane and more cost effective to properly train police officers in
an amended ordinance that clearly states
specific exceptions.
While it is recommended that a strict list of exemptions be
identified by Council, it is none-the-less the belief of HTH that the best
common sense, practical response to the issue in a city seeking to attain world
class stature, would be for us to simply
provide an ample supply of benches available to all citizens.
At one point in time, it seemed ok to value other people in
this country as 3/5ths of that of other people.
Almost everyone lined up behind that concept...but not everyone.
Richard R. Troxell
President House The Homeless
Author of the soon to be released book on Ending
Homelessness:
Looking Up at the Bottom Line