A week after city-owned properties in their council districts were identified as possibilities for sanctioned homeless encampments, Austin City Council members Paige Ellis and Natasha Harper-Madison made a formal request aimed at keeping that from happening. The two council members on Tuesday issued a plea for the city to rethink its plan to create sanctioned encampments, referring to it as a "band-aid tactic" and making the case for other options, like supportive housing. Ellis and Harper-Madison were previously part of a unanimous council vote in May that directed staff to look into the feasibility of identifying city-sanctioned sites where homeless people could live following voter approval of a citywide camping ban during the May 1 election.