VOCAL Texas

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10/07/2026

This week we testified alongside our partners Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, .integral, Equity Action, and our public defense counsel to share concerns about Austin’s new No Wrong Door program. We fear people in crises will face increased rights violations as they are met with police and without the housing and healthcare needed.

We also learned City leaders have discussed No Wrong Door with the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Cicero Institute, founded by Palantir billionaire Joe Lonsdale. Lonsdale and Cicero are behind efforts to attack Housing First, mandate treatment and expand the use of involuntary commitment of our unhoused neighbors across the country.

We know this isn’t the end of the conversation with No Wrong Door. We’ll keep fighting for clarity and safeguards, for police to be removed from homeless response, and for billionaires to be nowhere near our city policies.

09/03/2026

Homes not Handcuffs campaign update: Yesterday at City Council’s Public Health Committee, the Homeless Strategy Office presented a briefing on the new daily sweeps plan. We’ve been fighting encampment sweeps since before the new daily plan but especially now we’ve witnessed serious flaws in implementation all through the process from outreach efforts, to notice given, to protections for folks belongings, and especially on enforcement days.

After the ACLU of Texas and Texas Civil Rights Project delivered a letter citing potential 4th amendment violations for folks being swept under the current procedure, City Manager Broadnax replied dismissing these occurrences and implying that he had not heard of instances where folks belongings were seized. After our testimony, our team met with his office and delivered 13 recent complaints that detail items lost and sweep details.

Our city has committed to spend a lot of money on this enforcement plan. We can afford daily encampment sweeps, but not to expand shelter or housing opportunities for people. THAT AINT RIGHT!! Pause the new million dollar daily sweeps and work with directly impacted people to develop real solutions.

09/01/2026

Yesterday, THRA and VOCAL-TX commemorated the 25th anniversary of International Overdose Awareness Day. For 25 years, people who use drugs and their loved ones across the world have gathered to honor, mourn and reflect on the precious lives we’ve lost to the overdose crisis. On IOAD, we grieve loved ones lost and commit to fight like hell for the living!

In Austin, overdose is the leading cause of death for folks living outside. Earlier this year, Austin introduced a new plan to conduct daily camp sweeps led by APD. Unhoused people are being over-policed now more than ever and War on Drugs tactics are being used to arrest folks simply for living outside.

For the few who do get a shelter bed, our shelters and housing programs lack harm reduction policies and supplies. In fact, our members share stories of rampant stigma and discrimination, even for merely requesting Narcan, and folks who are using drugs are at a higher risk of losing shelter and being exited to the street.

As we honor the 25th anniversary of IOAD, we stand together to say: Every life lost to overdose is preventable. Harm reduction works. Housing First works. We will continue to fight to protect programs that work until we end overdose and the War on Drugs.

08/27/2026

Proud to join Austin Nurses United National Nurses United day of action to protect our communities from Palantir — the tech corporation fueling ICE terror, mass deportation/detention, war crimes and genocide.

Tech-billionaire Joe Lonsdale co-founded Palantir and is the founder of the Cicero Institute and 8VC. He built his fortune off the suffering of people and calls Austin his home.

What are we fighting for? People over billionaires. Beds not bombs. Care not cuts. That’s what we are fighting for today, and always.

08/26/2026

This August 31st marks the 25th annual International Overdose Awareness Day. A day to remember. A day to take action.

Overdose is the leading cause of death for people who are unhoused in Austin. The City’s new million-dollar daily sweeps plan destroys people’s belongings, including medications and Narcan/naloxone. For the few who get a shelter bed, our members share stories of stigma from staff and room searches if you ask the front desk for Narcan. And yes, some shelters keep it behind the desk. How many people have died of an overdose in our homeless shelters? How many people have been kicked out of shelter for drug use to die of an overdose on the street? Enough is enough!

Every overdose is preventable. Join us on August 31st as we mourn our loved ones and commit to fight like hell for the living!

08/20/2026

Ricky Collins shares the million dollar daily sweeps plan is “making everything worse. Causing complete chaos. I’m on edge all the time.” Ricky’s camp has received three different notices and three different dates that their encampment would be swept. Yet no one from the City has come. Resources and outreach efforts have ceased and he and his campmates stay on edge worried that each approaching vehicle could mean they could lose all they own.

Our city must cease daily encampment sweeps and start serious investments in places for people to go. Shelters, housing, and resources are the only true solutions that reduce the numbers of people on our streets.

08/05/2026

Willie Thompson is 65 and has been homeless for 15 years. He stays by the Terrazas Library, a Keep Clear site where unhoused people no longer receive outreach or notice before being swept and ticketed. This is the blueprint Austin is building out for its unhoused residents. We’re spending millions to sweep our homeless neighbors daily, without any additional investments to create safe places or housing opportunities for them to go.

You can take action today and call and email your city council member. Ask for their support to 1) stop the $1M dollar daily camp sweeps, 2) expand Violet Keepsafe Storage, and 3) keep APD funding flat and restore social services.

08/04/2026

Austin City Council is planning to pass a budget that cuts social services and increases the police budget by $25 million. The City is also spending millions sweeping our unhoused neighbors’ camps with no plan for housing and care. That ain’t right!

Join us on August 12th to learn more about our campaign to stop the sweeps and expose the billionaires behind these harmful policies. We’re teaming up with our friends Texas Harm Reduction Alliance who will talk about their incredible work and what real community safety looks like.

Link to register in bio.

07/23/2026

VOCAL-TX staff and leaders testified against the City Manager’s proposed budget yesterday because it would add $25 million to APD while cutting critical social services. Rather than fund housing programs and services that would actually get people off the street, the City continues to spend millions on camp sweeps, trashing everyone’s belongings and connecting very few people to shelter or services. That ain’t right!

07/02/2026

This week, 100+ people joined our 12-hour vigil at the billionaire-backed Cicero Institute. We exposed their billionaire founder Joe Lonsdale, sounded the alarm on the Grants Pass SCOTUS decision, and recentered real solutions.

We launched the Billionaire Backers of Hate campaign to expose the powerful billionaire influence driving the crises in our communities and to build the power to stop them. We are just getting started!

Stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved. Thank you to everyone who came out this week and made the vigil so powerful!

Shout out to Greg Casar J O S É M. A. V E L Á S Q U E Z Mike Siegel for joining us and standing up for unhoused Austinites!

And huge thank you to our partners AFSCME1624 UWIC National Nurses United Texas Harm Reduction Alliance Grassroots Leadership ✊🏾 Texas Advocates for Justice Austin DSA handsoffcentraltx People's Action Popular Democracy 💥 Austin Central Labor Council, Undoing White Supremacy Austin, and the Raging Grannies for standing with us against the Billionaire Backers of Hate.

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Austin, TX

Website

http://vocal-tx.org/

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