Council member moves to ease burden of homeless camp cleanups on private property owners

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After spending roughly five hours cleaning an abandoned homeless camp in north Austin, Council Member Mackenzie Kelly is looking for ways the City of Austin can help people with homeless encampment cleanups on private property.

"First and foremost, I learned that the conditions that individuals experiencing homelessness are in are absolutely abhorrent," Kelly said. "Secondly, I realized the actual burden that these property owners have to clean the trash out of that environment."

The City of Austin set aside more than $5 million for homeless camp cleanups and programs that help connect people experiencing homelessness with work clearing out parks and green spaces. But that funding doesn't help neighborhoods when people experiencing homelessness are pushed to private property, Kelly said.

"It's a sad problem. We really do sympathize with the homelessness but we are trying to keep our community safe," said Beverly Schlegel, the Lake Creek Park Home Owners Association president.

Residents of the Lake Creek Park area told Kelly it would cost them tens of thousands of dollars to clear out abandoned homeless camps in their green belt and that they would have to continue to spend that much money as the camps pop back up. So, they reached out to the city for help.

"They said they were getting no help from the city, which would be accurate because it is the responsibility of a private property owner to clean when there is an encampment," Kelly said. "I decided that I wanted to do everything I could to help them get that taken care of so I organized a group of volunteers and we went out there and cleaned almost 2.5 tons of trash."

That's why Kelly is working on a resolution that could provide resources for neighborhoods -- or property owners -- in the same situation. She'll need other council members to get on board with the idea to get the resolution on a city council agenda.

"My hope is that I can get my colleagues on board with a resolution that would direct the city manager to provide additional resources for individuals who have this type of crisis where they are, because that's what it is, it's a crisis," Kelly said.