May 06, 2021

Austin voted to ban homeless encampments and criminalize panhandlers again, effectively reneging on a 2019 vote that removed the ban. Proponents cite safety and health concerns, but advocates say decriminalizing homelessness has allowed service providers to extend aid more easily. Texas is currently considering implementing a ban of homeless encampments statewide. 

Vermont migrant dairy worker José Ignacio spent a year and a half sleeping on makeshift beds, including a mattress laid over an old water fountain for cows. Now an activist, he and several local groups are working together to provide immigrant dairy workers with quality, energy-efficient housing. Migrant Justice, worker-owned cooperative New Frameworks, and the energy efficiency utility Efficiency Vermont are designing solutions to improve farmworkers’ subpar living conditions (their housing standards are seldom enforced) while reducing energy costs and emissions. “This affects all of us, even our employers,” Ignacio said. “Because if we are sick, we can’t work, so it’s a loss for everyone. We can even lose our lives.” A large component of design will include input from the workers themselves.

On Friday, Iowa lawmakers passed a law allowing landlords to deny housing to renters using federal assistance. The new law has been stirring controversy; supporters wanted to give more autonomy and flexibility to landlords, but opponents say it upholds inaccurate and damaging stereotypes of people who rely on rental assistance. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development may come forward with a lawsuit.

Transit riders are frustrated that the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority consistently cancels buses without notifying its riders. Part of the problem is that the agency has 300 routes being driven by only 250 drivers. “We need to be able to provide reliable service for people to get to where they need to go. That’s our mission, and if we’re falling down on that we certainly need to address it,” said Hillsborough commissioner Mariella Smith. “It’s kind of frustrating to pay for a bus ticket and end up having to walk... or stand there waiting for a bus that’s not coming, especially when you don’t know it’s not coming,” said Lawrence Woodard, who relies on mass transit to get to work.