AUSTIN (KXAN)— A homeless encampment in southeast Austin is being cleaned up after months of complaints about drugs, open fires and trash. The Camp is located on Bluff Springs Road near William Cannon Drive.
Over the last few months, the site has continued to grow in size with more people moving in and more complaints coming from people living nearby.
The camp is in City of Austin Council Member Vanessa Fuentes’ district, KXAN sat down with her to see why it was not cleaned up sooner.
“We have a property owner that has been unresponsive to outreach attempts by the city and the city has issued a demand letter,” Fuentes told KXAN last week. “That will ask the property owner to do three things. That they put up a fence to secure the site, that they clean up the site and that they remove the debris that is currently there as well as they issue a no trespassing notice.”
With the property being private, the city said there is a process they have to go through to clean it up, and it can take time.
According to a Travis County Appraisal District property search, the owner is listed as MT Properties LLC out of Wilmington, Delaware.
City of Austin Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray stopped by the cleanup Thursday.
“We are going to be putting a lean on the property so that way the city and taxpayers can get their money back if this property is conveyed down the road, also happy that we were able to get 24 people off this site and into shelter over the last week or so and so what you are seeing today is that transition from compassion to action,” said Gray.
Gray said there is a need for more beds to help people who are looking to get off the streets and into shelter.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
