The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

A6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019

news media that there was no

evidence a pedestrian caused the

crash.

Abbott did not respond to re-

quests for comment.

But even some homeless peo-

ple in Austin question whether

the rules are too lenient.

“Everyone now has a sense of

entitlement, and now things are

beyond out of control,” said Am-

bra Hall, 38, a homeless woman

who was sitting in a camp while

five men were passed out at her

feet after smoking synthetic can-

nabinoids. “It went from one ex-

treme to another, from criminal-

izing people for not having a

home, to this.”

Drug use and crime in some

homeless camps have become

fodder for Republican politicians

in Te xas and across the country.

Washington state Sen. Phil Fortu-

nato announced that he will run

for governor next year on a plat-

form that includes removing the

“criminal homeless” from the

streets by incarcerating them for

even minor crimes.

“Everyone wants to address it

with kid gloves,” Fortunato said.

“You have got to get them off the

streets.”

Republicans think they have

the upper hand, noting that Den-

ver’s “Right to Survive” measure,

which would have allowed people

to sleep in tents or cars in public,

was voted down by 82 percent of

voters this spring.

In Austin, however, views

about the camping rules may be

less decisive.

Homeless residents “have no-

where else to go,” said Michael

Sherman, 40, a graphic designer

who moved to Austin four years

ago from Fairfax, Va. “So it doesn’t

bother me if they are just lying

around.”

[email protected]

sleep is “biologically essential.”

Theane Evangelis, an attorney

for the city of Boise, said courts

should not “usurp” the role of

local governments in regulating

public health and safety, noting

that homeless camps in Los Ange-

les and elsewhere have been bat-

tling outbreaks of disease.

“We need to keep control over

those issues in local communities

because they are very complex

problems, and constitutionaliz-

ing the issue ties the hands of

cities and states to address this,”

Evangelis said. She is partnering

with attorney Theodore Olson,

who argued the Supreme Court

case that mandated same-sex

marriage nationwide.

On a recent morning in Austin,

Curtis Underwood, 49, was sit-

ting along Sixth Street with a

bloody nose. He said he suffers

from epilepsy and had just been

to a local social service agency

searching for housing but was

turned away.

“They said there is a waiting

list of at least six months,” Under-

wood said. “I guess I need to get a

job, but the rent is so expensive

because all the people from Cali-

fornia are moving here.”

The wait list for affordable

housing is about three years, said

Adler, the city’s mayor. Austin is

planning to spend $30 million to

build more, but Adler notes that

state funding has been stagnant

— one reason he’s outraged over

the governor’s opposition to Aus-

tin’s public-camping action.

The day after the relaxed rules

took effect, Abbott retweeted a

photograph of a car crash and

implied that a homeless person

caused it by running into traffic.

“Look at t his insanity caused by

Austin’s reckless homeless pol-

icy,” Abbott wrote.

Austin police later told local

Restaurant, Grill and Margarita

Bar.

There were about 553,

homeless people in the United

States last year, according to the

Department of Housing and Ur-

ban Development, and 35 percent

of them were not sleeping in

shelters. It was the second con-

secutive annual increase in home-

lessness, a trend being driven by

single adults, the report noted.

The debate over camping bans

triggered a far-reaching federal

lawsuit in Boise, where the ban

was ruled a violation of the consti-

tutional right against “cruel and

unusual punishment,” because

homelessness out of the shadows.

Now, on some mornings, doz-

ens of homeless people are sleep-

ing on sidewalks in the city’s

well-known East Sixth Street

nightlife district. A messy en-

campment has been erected near

a mural honoring two Te xas mu-

sic legends, Janis Joplin and Wil-

lie Nelson.

That has sparked intense back-

lash from Austin business owners

along the corridor.

“We hear it from our guests

that walk into the restaurant and

say, ‘My God, what has happened

to Austin?’ ” said Gary Manley,

owner of the Iron Cactus Mexican

living on Austin streets since he

was released from prison in 2014,

thinks the new approach is saving

lives. After he received two cita-

tions for public camping, Sander-

son slept in drainage ditches to

avoid the police until, one night in

2018, he was awakened by a thun-

derous wall of water that crashed

down the creek bed during a flash

flood.

“The water hit my back and I

stood up and it just washed me off

my feet,” s aid Sanderson, 64, who

was swept downstream.

Sanderson was rescued, but his

story helped convince Austin law-

makers that they needed to bring

in cities grappling with over-
cr owded shelters.
As a legal matter, the issue
could reach the U.S. Supreme
Court. The city of Boise, Idaho,
recently asked the high court to
review a ruling from the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 9th Cir-
cuit, which applies in nine West-
ern states. The ruling determined
that criminalizing public sleeping
is unconstitutional when there is
inadequate shelter space.
Meanwhile, Republicans have
made the nation’s growing home-
less population a political weap-
on, characterizing it as a failure of
liberal policies.
“Look at Los Angeles with the
tents and the horrible, horrible
conditions,” President Trump
said at a Cincinnati rally this
month. “Look at San Francisco;
look at some of your other cities.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom
(D), when asked about Trump’s
recent comments, said that Dem-
ocratic policies have fueled the
economic resurgence of U.S. cities
that has caused a short-term in-
crease in homelessness. Califor-
nia is home to nearly half of the
nation’s homeless people who do
not use shelters, according to fed-
eral data.
“We don’t need [the presi-
dent’s] megaphone to tell us we
have challenges,” said Newsom,
adding that California is spend-
ing $1.7 billion to address housing
affordability.
In Austin, Te xas Gov. Greg Ab-
bott (R) has threatened to push
the GOP-dominated legislature to
pass a law overriding the capital’s
public-camping action. The Trav-
is County Republican Party has
organized a petition drive calling
for the policy to be rescinded, and
local party leaders are trying to
put it on the ballot next spring.
“They thought it would be com-
passionate and not a big deal, but
it has been an absolute disaster
for this city,” said Matt Mackow-
iak, chairman of the county party.
“This is our best example of [lib-
eral] overreach, so we have been
very strategic focusing on this
issue.”
But Austin officials are refus-
ing to back down, saying it’s not
practical to effectively criminal-
ize homelessness.
“When you move these people,
they don’t disappear. They just go
somewhere else,” said Mayor
Steve Adler (D). “The real answer
is not just moving people from
there to over there and back
again. The real answer is giving
them the services they need.”
Previously, the city prohibited
“sitting or lying down on public
sidewalks or sleeping outdoors”
in downtown Austin, where an
influx of well-paid workers has
driven up the cost of housing.
Between 2014 and 2016, Austin
police issued 18,000 citations for
rule violations, which cost as
much as $500 with court fees,
though many violators received
only community service hours.
But those cited didn’t show up
for court 90 percent of the time, a
2017 city auditor’s report found,
and nearly three-quarters of the
citations led to an arrest warrant.
Concerned that those criminal
records made it even harder for
homeless people to find jobs and
housing, the City Council amend-
ed the ordinance to allow loiter-
ing if an individual is not posing a
threat to the “health or safety of
another person or themselves” or
“impeding the reasonable use of a
public area.” Overnight camping
is still prohibited in city parks and
at City Hall.
“We basically said, if someone
is poor, and they have nowhere to
sleep, and they are not endanger-
ing or blocking anyone, how can
we say that is wrong?” said Grego-
rio “Greg” Casar, a council mem-
ber who pushed to ease the rules.
Alvin Sanderson, who has been

HOMELESS FROM A

Austin policymakers feel the heat from Republicans at state and county levels

BY FELICIA SONMEZ,

MIKE DEBONIS

AND VANESSA WILLIAMS

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
said Wednesday that he will
resign at the end of 2019 because
of health problems, setting the
stage for two competitive Senate
races in Georgia in a presidential
election year.
Isakson, who was reelected to
a third term in 2016, said in a
statement that he had informed
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) of
his decision to leave “a job I love
because my h ealth challenges are
taking their toll on m e, my f amily
and my staff.”
His resignation is effective
Dec. 31.
“My Parkinson’s has been pro-
gressing, and I am continuing
physical therapy to recover from
a fall in July. In addition, this
week I had surgery to remove a
growth on my kidney,” the 74-

year-old senator said.

Isakson was hospitalized last

month with four fractured ribs

and a torn rotator cuff a fter a fall

at his Washington apartment.

On Monday, he had surgery in

Georgia to remove a two-centi-

meter renal cell carcinoma from

one of his kidneys, his office

said.

Kemp is expected to tap a

Republican to replace Isakson

next year. His retirement means

Georgia voters will be asked to

choose two U.S. senators next

year, as Sen. David Perdue (R) is

seeking a second term.

In a statement, Kemp thanked

Isakson for his years of service

and said he will appoint a suc-

cessor “at the appropriate time.”

Isakson’s departure immedi-

ately shifted attention to Demo-

crat Stacey Abrams, who nar-

rowly lost the governor’s race in

2018. A brams s aid in a statement
      she will n ot seek the seat, but she

is likely to face continued pleas

from Democrats to run.

“Our thoughts are with Sena-

tor Isakson and his family,”

Abrams spokesman Seth Bring-

man said. “Leader Abrams’ focus

will not change: she will lead

voter protection efforts in key

states across the country, and

make sure Democrats are suc-

cessful in Georgia in 2020. While

she will not be a candidate

herself, she is committed to help-

ing Democratic candidates win

both Senate races next year.”

Democrats had previously

courted Abrams t o challenge Per-

due, but she turned them down

and has focused on building a

national voter protection pro-

gram.

Isakson is chairman of the

Senate Committee on Veterans

Affairs and the Senate Select

Committee on Ethics.

Possible Republican replace-

ments include Georgia Attorney

General Chris Carr, who served

as chief of staff to Isakson; Lt.

Gov. G eoff Duncan; and U.S. Rep.

Douglas A. Collins.

The winner of the 2020 elec-

tion will serve the remaining two

years of Isakson’s term, and the

winner of the 2022 election will

serve a full six-year term.

Isakson is the fifth senator to

announce plans to retire. Three

other GOP committee chairmen

— Pat Roberts (Kan.), Lamar

Alexander (Tenn.) and Mike Enzi

(Wyo.) — have said they will not

seek reelection next year, depriv-

ing the Senate of some of the

more powerful pragmatic con-

servatives who have worked

closely with Democrats to ad-

vance bipartisan legislation.

Sen. To m Udall (N.M.) is the

lone Democrat not seeking an-

other term.

News of Isakson’s retirement

prompted praise for the senator

from both sides of the aisle.

“One of the many fine adjec-

tives to describe Johnny Isakson

is a word not used enough in the

halls of Congress these days:

kind,” Senate Minority Leader

Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said

in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch

McConnell (R-Ky.) called Isakson

“not only a first-rate legislator

but also a man of the highest

integrity.”

With Isakson’s retirement,

Democrats now must field two

Senate candidates in Georgia, a

state that has been trending

slowly in their direction but so

far has remained out of grasp in

statewide races.

Five Democrats have declared

campaigns to challenge Perdue;

so far only Teresa To mlinson, the

former mayor of Columbus, has

raised a significant amount of

money, indicating a credible

ca mpaign.

Other candidates include

Clarkston Mayor Te d Te rry, who

appeared last year in an episode

of the Netflix reality show

“Queer Eye,” and Sarah Riggs

Amico, a business executive who

ran for lieutenant governor last

year. Both Te rry and Amico sig-

naled Wednesday that they

would stay in the race against

Perdue.

Another potential candidate

is Jon Ossoff, who was a liberal

political star in 2017 when he

made a strong but unsuccessful

bid in a special election for the

6th Congressional District seat

in suburban Atlanta.

Isakson’s political career be-

gan with his election to the

Georgia House in 1976. He is the

only person in Georgia’s history

to have been elected to the state

House and U.S. House and Sen-

ate.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Isakson announces resignation, setting up two 2020 Senate races in Georgia

PHOTOS BY TAMIR KALIFA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

With Austin’s change in approach toward the homeless, people in a tent encampment under Interstate 35 near downtown may sleep without the worry of being ticketed.

David Fields passes the time on Sixth Street in Austin. Homeless people are sleeping on sidewalks in

the city’s well-known East Sixth Street nightlife district, and some area business owners are frustrated.

“The real answer is not just moving people from there to over there and back again.

The real answer is giving them the services they need.”

Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D), discussing the city’s homeless population