City council passes ordinances affecting unhoused residents

Despite pushback via public comment at both the first and second reading of a city ordinance that would prohibit nonprofits from using public parking lots to distribute food, it was unanimously approved by Georgetown City Council during its June 24 meeting.

A total of three ordinances that would impact the unhoused were passed on second reading: 

• It is prohibited to sit or lay down on public sidewalks, streets, alleyways or property in the Downtown Overlay and in addition to aggressive panhandling.
• It is unlawful to be in any city park outside of designated hours and it is unlawful to use a park amenity like a bench, picnic table or pavilion outside of a reservation for longer than two hours in a 24-hour period.
• It is prohibited to distribute food or other goods on city-owned and city-controlled parking lots. 

“I understand your concerns, I really do, but I want you to know that the [Georgetown Coalition for the Unhoused] is very sincere about addressing these issues and working with [the city] so that you don’t have to do this kind of thing,” Resident Dwight Richter told city council. “It’s a little bit of a setback, this ordinance about the parking, because we’re using public parking. I haven’t seen it cause any kind of particular issue at this point.” 

Police Chief Cory Tchida said these ordinances reflect similar ones that were implemented in Austin. He reiterated his stance that homelessness is a community issue that needs community solutions. 

He also said the police department would continue to work with organizations like Georgetown Coalition for the Unhoused, Bluebonnet Trails Community Services, churches and area nonprofits to try and address the issues surrounding homelessness.

“Nobody believes these ordinances will fix the problems in Georgetown. This is just a tool,” he said earlier this month. 

Resident Michelle Augustine came and spoke on behalf of nonprofits Helping Hands of Georgetown and Navigation Services, which helps people get the documents they need to get jobs, housing, food benefits, social security and insurance. 

“I support the general objective of this particular ordinance that has to do with parking, all of those things make great sense to me, but I am concerned, still, about our food distribution in public spaces and parking areas,” Ms. Augustine said. “It seems that that’s going to fall a lot to the churches and nonprofits in our community to address food insecurity. 

“But I’m going to ask the city a question which is: you’ve indicated to me that we need to find private property to continue such food distributions, so can you help me identify what some of those private properties might be so we can approach them?” 

She closed her public comment by showing council members what’s inside a food sack Helping Hands: a sandwich, a salty thing, a sweet thing and a fruit cup. 

“For some people this is the only meal that they’re getting once a day,” Ms. Augustine said.