NO SWEEPS, NO EVICTIONS
The city of Austin intends to sweep 17 camps starting tomorrow. Residents are still recovering from the deep freeze and many are still sheltering at hotels or warming centers. Just as the city swept camps in the first days of the freeze and refused to open cold weather shelters 24/7 they are proceeding as if all this were “normal”.
Many of those who are in hotels have not even gotten to return to camp to survey the damage. The city crews will almost certainly use this opportunity to throw away crucial life-saving gear they deem unsightly, as they have in previous cases. This is an almost unthinkable act of cruelty.
Residents of hotels are also facing a deadline. Mutual Aid Funds have brooked hotels through Tuesday and the city refuses to step in to keep people sheltered there.
