Dear Mayor Adler and Governor Abbott,

Happy July 4. In the spirit of the holiday, I am writing to urge you both to work together to solve the issues surrounding homelessness.

On August 7, 1942, my dad’s Marine troop landed on the shore of Guadalcanal. His troop thought the natives were so happy to see the Americans there to defend freedom that they were running out to the shoreline with open arms repeating a greeting in a foreign language. Turns out they were saying “Marines go home.” My dad was one of a small handful Marines from that troop to live to tell the tale. A few months later, at barely 18 years old, my dad was in Guadalcanal dying of black water fever and malaria. The only reason he lived is because the same natives nursed him back to health. My worldly dad gave me lots of advice. One thing that rings true, no matter what, was this:

“You can do anything you want – so long as you are willing to pay the consequences.”

Fast forward to 2019 in Austin, Texas. We make laws that we think will make the community better – like the plastic bag ban. This ban helped Austin to not look shabby like other cities with dirty bags hanging from the trees. This is not political, it is just common sense: if you don’t give out the excessive plastic, it doesn’t end up as pollution. Yet the State’s administration felt it necessary to politicize it and to further polarize relationships with our community. 

Mayor Adler, you know me and that I have supported you 100%. I see you out in the community and I know you care about making all of the people in Austin successful, comfortable, and most of all, happy. But I have to say I was shocked at the repeal of the ordinances that allow law enforcement to try to keep a balanced situation. It makes me question why I am paying such high rent if someone can pitch a tent right outside my apartment.

Governor Abbott, we have never met but I have met your wife at a charity event. Cecilia has a heart as big as Texas, and I know there must be compassion within your own heart to put aside political rhetoric and actually work with Mayor Adler to creatively lead us to a solution to this crisis.

The topic of street drugs/homelessness/law enforcement is really important to me because I live downtown. When I moved to Austin from Northeast Ohio 5-1/2 years ago for a tech job, I was impressed. At first, I moved to the suburbs, then I read the Mayor’s call to move downtown. The administration wanted to build a residential community, bringing 25,000 people downtown. I believe 30,000 is the new goal. It is amazing to see a vibrant downtown with people living and working here. 

The first few years I lived downtown, I used to take care of the guy who lived on the street in front of my apartment. I’d make sure he didn’t die in the heat by bringing him something for shade and cold water, and always bring him my leftover food. I knew his name, John Patrick, and that he came from Ireland. I’d see him go through the cycle each day – foraging for food (through the cans full of bags of dog feces), sitting on the benches in the mornings, which is the only time real conversations could happen, later disappearing for a few hours. By late afternoon, with bloody-red eyes, John Patrick would no longer make eye contact with me because he was too high.

John Patrick would come and go, and then eventually disappeared. He was replaced by several others that weren’t so pleasant. Wanting to reach out and help was replaced by fear of being accosted. I could watch the drug selling moves on my street. I wondered, if I can tell who is selling drugs, why can’t the police? But that was before I realized that their hands are tied by you – our battling politicians.

When I walk around downtown Austin, I see new construction everywhere, even though many of the new buildings have empty storefronts. This creates perfect places for people to stand and accost people who walk by. Perfect places to sell K2, meth, crack, heroin, sex, and anything else. Anyone walking past can buy hard drugs by making eye contact with the right person. Why are these storefronts allowed to sit empty, while developers go on to create more and more high rises? This creates a ghost town effect in neighborhoods with thousands of residents. Walk up W. 5^thfrom Congress Avenue and you’ll see what I mean. By allowing this to happen, we are setting the stage for street crimes.

A few months ago, I was grabbed in a bear hug from behind at a crosswalk when I was walking home from a tech event. My choice was to fight or to run into oncoming traffic. I fought. Fortunately, the guy was so high I was able to push him away. Then he started crying and following me. The next time I walked past, the same guy got in my face and demanded money. It is like having a bully on the corner – I haven’t experienced this since I was a kid – where you have to go way around just to avoid getting beat up. 

Also, I have worked with many people who are blind and others with disabilities who will be negatively impacted by the repeal of the camping rules for “people who are experiencing homelessness.” It seems to me that the same “people who are experiencing homelessness” are also the same “people who are experiencing hard drugs.” Never mind the “people who are experiencing smelling urine on the street” and the “people experiencing being accosted every time they walk out of their home.” We need an approach that helps the solve the problem as a whole. I am concerned that the current approach is attracting more vagrants to Austin and enabling them to commit crimes on our streets.

In the tech industry, we have two primary ways of executing projects. Waterfall, where you plan everything out and take years to show results, and agile, where you plan for short successes that show results quickly, then reassess. Maybe you have a similar technique for planning improvements. We need a goal-oriented, agile-style management program like this to get us out of the hole we are digging. 

The situation can’t be viewed in terms of what will happen in the next 1-1/2 years before the next legislature. We don’t have that much time to see what happens. It is easy to see what is going to happen by looking at other cities. What happens to people like me? What happens to the people who work service jobs? They have already been pushed to the edges of town, forced to work several jobs and ride the bus to town and back – now they have to watch while people camp for free? Won’t some people who are struggling say “well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?” 

There aren’t mysteries here. We already know the consequences of inaction by looking at Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where people come and go from their high-tech offices while stepping over human bodies (dead or sleeping – who can tell?) and feces. We need a non-partisan approach to working with these communities to find our own answers, and we need it quickly.

We need the City and the State to work TOGETHER – every ounce of your energy and every one of your brilliant ideas is needed to get us out of this mess before it is too late. There is truly no time for in-fighting – we are all Texans, and we need to stick together before we end up paying the consequences.

Governor Abbott and Mayor Adler, I beg you to please work together to solve the issues with street drugs, homelessness and law enforcement. Let’s become an example for the rest of the country and put the welfare of the public before politics.

Regards,

Karen Kilroy

CEO, Kilroy Blockchain, LLC

Cc: Austin Tech Alliance