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• Austin Recreation Center, 1301 Shoal Creek Blvd.
Last week, multiple city departments laid out the initial criteria for the sites. The city wants locations hosting 50 people to be 2 acres, while encampments hosting 100 people should be at least 4 acres.
City staff emphasized the list is preliminary. Some possible sites are on parkland that gets a lot of use like the Onion Creek Metropolitan, Mary Moore Seawright, Gus Garcia, Bull Creek, Patterson, Walnut Creek, Roy G. Guerrero and Palm Neighborhood parks.
Kimberly McNeeley, director of Parks and Recreation, told council the resolution that triggered the review suggested parkland could be on the table at least for the initial list.
KUT
The Esperanza community, a 150-person sanctioned encampment for people experiencing homelessness, sits on a plot of state-owned land in Southeast Austin.
This week, Austin began a phased approach to reinstating the city s ban on camping in public, along with limitations on resting and panhandling that were approved by voters earlier this month.
In response, the Austin City Council asked the city manager to identify campsites that could house people who are displaced by the camping ban.
Homeless Strategy Officer Dianna Grey came back with a memo on Friday that says the city has reviewed at least 70 city-owned locations that could serve as city-sanctioned encampment sites, which would provide water hookups, parking facilities and other amenities for people living outdoors.
KUT
City and police officials will give more details Tuesday on how ordinances targeting people experiencing homelessness will be enforced. The local laws were restored after voters approved Proposition B earlier this month.
Starting today, it s illegal once again for people experiencing homelessness to set up encampments throughout most of the city.
Sitting or lying down in some stretches of Austin and panhandling at night are also against the law after voters this month approved a proposition to reinstate criminal penalties for those activities.
While those laws are officially back on the books, the city says it s not ticketing anyone yet for violating them at least not immediately.
After winter storms kill palm trees, rushing to remove them could ruin Austin bat habitats Mike Marut
Replay Video UP NEXT We could say, roughly, there may be 14,000 or 15,000 palm trees in the greater Austin area, and again, I m a little bit more optimistic that maybe not up to 90% did not die, Lisa Killander, an arborist and project manager with Austin Public Works said. I m thinking now it s going to be less than that.
The freeze also killed thousands of bats in Austin. Austin Bat Refuge founders Lee Mackenzie and Dianne Odegard said they saw at least 4,000 bats fall from under bridges after thawing out. They estimate only 1,200 of them were alive and able to be taken to the refuge s flight cage for rehabilitation. Of those, only about 600 survived. Even fewer are able to get back into the wild again. Odegard is still watching over them in what she calls her field hospital.