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How one Trumpist tech mogul pushed a crackdown on the unhoused all the way to the Supreme Court.

By Rebecca Burns, In These Times

From his new studio apartment in Austin, Texas, Barry Jones, 62, finds it easy to keep up with doctors’ appointments and pick up the medications he relies on. In the month since he was finally awarded a permanent housing voucher, he’s felt his anxiety abating.

But during the years he spent sleeping on the streets — nearly a quarter of his life, on and off, much of that spent on waitlists for assistance — Jones would regularly wake up in the middle of the night with his heart racing. The everyday stress of unsheltered life was compounded by the threat of city police sweeps that could mean losing his medications, survival gear or the documents he needed to continue accessing services.

Homeless encampment in downtown LA

“It makes you feel hunted, you know, like a fugitive,” Jones says of local laws that criminalize sleeping in public spaces. ​“It’s hard for me to get across just how counterproductive these sweeps are.”

Three years ago, Austin reinstated a ban on downtown homeless encampments through a ballot referendum campaign financed by the city’s elite—including Joe Lonsdale, the venture capitalist now leading a pro-Trump super PAC. Since then, the city has issued more than 900 citations for the crimes of sleeping, lying down or pitching a tent in public spaces. But the estimated number of people without housing only continued to rise as Austin saw some of the nation’s steepest pandemic rent hikes. In 2022, just 21 affordable apartments were available for every 100 extremely low-income households. Housing advocates have long argued that cities can’t simply arrest their way out of homelessness — and within Austin, even proponents of the camping ban complain that it has not had its desired effect: Real-estate and business interests are currently suing to compel an even harsher crackdown.

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Economic Justice