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APA! staff and volunteers were joined by Austin City Council members Kathie Tovo and Leslie Pool as they issued a special proclamation acknowledging the accomplishment.
Homelessness response anchors $263.5 million spending plan
As property taxes continue to soar for Austin homeowners, City Council members are looking to intervene with a countermeasure they've long resisted: raising the city's homestead exemption to the maximum allowed by state law. This week, the council is poised to authorize doubling the current 10% exemption on city property taxes and taking it to the maximum of 20% allowed by Texas law. That would result in the owner of a median home paying $141 less per year in city property taxes than the person would have without the exemption, according to city estimates. The tax relief comes via a propo...
Until city staff submit its report in June, it remains unclear if any of the campsites will be removed from the potential list (Courtesy of the Black Leaders Collective) After last week's widely panned release of a long "preliminary list" of city-owned properties that could be designated as sanctioned campsites for people experiencing homelessness, City Council has shown some sympathy for the staffers who had little direction and a tight timeline for their effort. But members are still befuddled as to how some locations could ever be considered. A historic Black cemetery? T...
Beginning Tuesday in Austin, it will again be illegal for people experiencing homelessness to camp in public, after a citywide vote to restore criminal penalties. The ban — approved overwhelmingly by voters May 1 — returns the city to the policy it had in place for 23 years before June 2019, when the Austin City Council passed a controversial measure to eliminate penalties for living in many public spaces. But as the ban goes back on the books, key issues remain unsettled about the relocation options for the unsheltered population. With housing and shelters brimming at capacity, it's...