Quote:
Originally Posted by paul78701
I don't think that they should be shunted or moved to the outskirts, but I don't believe the current location to be healthy. A large portion of the homeless are so because they have mental health and/or substance abuse issues.
It simply can't be good for them to be in one of the easiest spots in the city to access drugs...and be in the middle of all of the substance abuse going on in that area on a nightly basis.
At some point, the value of the land those facilities sits on will hit a tipping point. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually makes sense to cash out at a hefty price and then build new, improved facilities elsewhere.
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The question becomes where exactly is that "elsewhere"? Every neighborhood in the city would fight tooth and nail to prevent the ARCH and/or the Sally from relocating to their neck of the woods. Right now the city owns substantial acreage at the site of the former Home Depot and an adjacent car dealership at IH35 and St. John's. At various times there were plans to relocate the main police station and/or the municipal courts to that location, but those plans were later dropped. There is plenty of room there to build a campus that could provide all kinds of services for the homeless, and it is somewhat well served by public transit and close enough to other services. It would, however, be criminal to impose this kind of disruption on the adjoining low income neighborhood that already struggles with poverty, crime, and drugs.
7th and Red River has been a congregating spot for the homeless since the Sally opened their facility nearby in the 1970s, but it was not overwhelming because there was not much else happening there at the time. Red River was the location of a few gay bars between 6th and 7th and two or three other spots like the much smaller Stubb's. Most of the rest of Red River from 7th to 10th was vacant and abandoned. The ARCH was previously located across downtown (in what later became the Mellow Johnny's bike shop started by Lance Armstrong) in a much smaller facility. The ARCH relocated to the new facility next door to the Sally around 2002 or so, maybe a year or two earlier. This happened at the same time that several new bars and clubs began to open along Red River creating the so called "Red River Cultural District", a name that I find absurdly pretentious. My point is that a kind of critical mass of homeless people and night-time revelers completely changed the dynamic of that part of downtown. It became a place of opportunity for many of the homeless and also an attraction due to the concentration of homeless services (and feedings), a communal spirit of sorts with other homeless people, access to street drugs, easy panhandling, and what have you. What you get there today is a real civic cluster fuck that might be one of those "what keeps Austin weird" kind of things. I would love to sweep those sidewalks clean and make that area safe and sanitary, but I think what we have is a monster situation that has no easy solution. Maybe very effective law enforcement is the best possible short term fix, but the APD never seems to have the stomach to engage in this kind of clean up activity for very long before they lose interest.