Democrats kill Texas bill to punish cities that don't clear homeless encampments
The measure, Senate Bill 241 by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, would have required cities to establish channels for residents to report illegal homeless encampments. If a complaint were not addressed within 90 days, the state could send the Department of Public Safety to clear encampments, then charge the city for that enforcement by withholding sales tax revenues.
Texas' attorney general, currently Republican Ken Paxton, would be responsible for notifying the DPS and the state comptroller about unresolved complaints.
"The state has been the one footing the bill for the cities that have failed to address homeless camping in their jurisdiction," House sponsor Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, said. "Whether it's in my area, in Fort Worth, or in Dallas or here in Austin, everybody knows that these camping restrictions on homeless camping restrictions have not been enforced."
Rep. Gina Hinajosa, D-Austin, argued the state is contributing to Austin's homelessness problem by sending formerly incarcerated people into the city when their sentences end. She pointed to a state-licensed halfway house in East Austin, the Austin Transitional Center, where she said the majority of the population has no connection to Travis County.
"We are blamed for our homelessness problem in Austin when it is the state of Texas who is in large part creating the problem," Hinojosa said.
State Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic Caucus chair, dealt the death blow to SB 241 late Monday night. He argued its caption, "relating to prohibitions on camping in a public place," violated a House rule that requires captions to "give reasonable notice of the subject of the proposed measure."
Wu said he killed the bill because it would have done nothing to alleviate the homeless crisis, but instead punish people experiencing homeless and municipalities such as Austin, Dallas and Houston that are trying to find compassionate solutions to the ongoing crisis.
"It is a genuinely evil bill," Wu told the Statesman.
Capriglione postponed the bill to June 3, an acknowledgement that there is not enough time to fix the caption issue before the 2025 legislative session adjourns on June 2. Tuesday is the last day for the House to give initial approval to Senate bills.
The bill had passed in a bipartisan 22-8 vote in the state Senate, with Democratic Sens. Royce West of Dallas, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Carol Alvarado of Houston joining Republicans to support the measure.
Austin, the seat of state government, has struggled with how to address homeless encampments. Austin voters in 2021 reinstated the city's camping ban, which the city council had repealed in 2019.
In 2021, the political action committee behind the city's homeless camping ban sued, accusing Austin of failing to fully enforce the ordinance. The Third Court of Appeals affirmed in February 2025 that the group, Save Austin Now, lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
Statesman staff writer John C. Moritz contributed reporting.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Democrats kill effort to increase enforcement of camping ban
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