2017: Austin spent $35 million on homelessness. 2,036 homeless counted. 2025: $118 million. 3,238 homeless. Spending more than tripled and homelessness went up 59%. If you service the homeless lifestyle, you will get more of it. The NGOs that run this system get paid by the problem of homelessness, so they have no reason to end it -- in fact, their only incentive is to make sure the problem grows.

The NGOs end up increasing the number of homeless people they manage, because that’s the only way to increase their revenue! Incentives drive outcomes. “Homeless” is a propaganda word used to describe people on the street who are mentally ill or severely addicted to drugs. The word implies that this is someone who fell a little behind on their mortgage payment and they’re one job offer away from getting back on their feet, which is obviously false if you’ve ever tried talking to a “homeless” person in SF, LA, NY, Austin or anywhere else. The honest reality is that we need to bring back asylums for extreme mental illness or drug addiction for those who are a serious danger to themselves or others.

AUSTIN MAN charged with murdering a man over a diamond watch just walked out of jail after a judge cut his bond. The victim posted photos of cash and a diamond Cartier watch online. Police say six people spent two weeks planning to take them. In Nov 2024, they blasted into his apartment, assaulted a woman, pointed a gun at a child, and shot the victim dead. Judaren Forbes, 22, is indicted for murder. He posted bond last week. Another judge then set bond at $1 on his open gun cases. When the victim was killed, Forbes was already out on bond in four cases. Highlights: 2022: Arrested carrying a gun. January 2023: Video shows him running into the street at a house party and firing an AR at a passing car. Prosecutors knocked the felony down to a misdemeanor. 60 days in jail. March 2023: Arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. DA Jose Garza's office declined to file it. Christmas Eve 2023: Arrested with another Glock. Out the next day. September 2024: He fled a trooper from a street takeover, crashed into another driver, hurled his Glock off an I-35 overpass, and jumped after it. Hours later he swore to police his car had been stolen. Ten weeks later, a man was killed. Five of the six home invasion suspects were already out on violent cases. The murder victim’s mother said they "should have never been free on bond." Now Forbes is back on the street.

AUSTIN MAN charged with murdering a man over a diamond watch just walked out of jail after a judge cut his bond. The victim posted photos of cash and a diamond Cartier watch online. Police say six people spent two weeks planning to take them. In Nov 2024, they blasted into his apartment, assaulted a woman, pointed a gun at a child, and shot the victim dead. Judaren Forbes, 22, is indicted for murder. He posted bond last week. Another judge then set bond at $1 on his open gun cases. When the victim was killed, Forbes was already out on bond in four cases. Highlights: 2022: Arrested carrying a gun. January 2023: Video shows him running into the street at a house party and firing an AR at a passing car. Prosecutors knocked the felony down to a misdemeanor. 60 days in jail. March 2023: Arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. DA Jose Garza's office declined to file it. Christmas Eve 2023: Arrested with another Glock. Out the next day. September 2024: He fled a trooper from a street takeover, crashed into another driver, hurled his Glock off an I-35 overpass, and jumped after it. Hours later he swore to police his car had been stolen. Ten weeks later, a man was killed. Five of the six home invasion suspects were already out on violent cases. The murder victim’s mother said they "should have never been free on bond." Now Forbes is back on the street.

AUSTIN MAN charged with murdering a man over a diamond watch just walked out of jail after a judge cut his bond. The victim posted photos of cash and a diamond Cartier watch online. Police say six people spent two weeks planning to take them. In Nov 2024, they blasted into his apartment, assaulted a woman, pointed a gun at a child, and shot the victim dead. Judaren Forbes, 22, is indicted for murder. He posted bond last week. Another judge then set bond at $1 on his open gun cases. When the victim was killed, Forbes was already out on bond in four cases. Highlights: 2022: Arrested carrying a gun. January 2023: Video shows him running into the street at a house party and firing an AR at a passing car. Prosecutors knocked the felony down to a misdemeanor. 60 days in jail. March 2023: Arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. DA Jose Garza's office declined to file it. Christmas Eve 2023: Arrested with another Glock. Out the next day. September 2024: He fled a trooper from a street takeover, crashed into another driver, hurled his Glock off an I-35 overpass, and jumped after it. Hours later he swore to police his car had been stolen. Ten weeks later, a man was killed. Five of the six home invasion suspects were already out on violent cases. The murder victim’s mother said they "should have never been free on bond." Now Forbes is back on the street.

DEI is being put into every Austin city department The watershed department (the guys who work on projects to prevent flooding) presented yesterday. Instead of prioritizing work by 'worst problem first', they now use equity, community health, and 'lived experiences' of neighborhoods to decide what projects to do 👀

AUSTIN MAN charged with murdering a man over a diamond watch just walked out of jail after a judge cut his bond. The victim posted photos of cash and a diamond Cartier watch online. Police say six people spent two weeks planning to take them. In Nov 2024, they blasted into his apartment, assaulted a woman, pointed a gun at a child, and shot the victim dead. Judaren Forbes, 22, is indicted for murder. He posted bond last week. Another judge then set bond at $1 on his open gun cases. When the victim was killed, Forbes was already out on bond in four cases. Highlights: 2022: Arrested carrying a gun. January 2023: Video shows him running into the street at a house party and firing an AR at a passing car. Prosecutors knocked the felony down to a misdemeanor. 60 days in jail. March 2023: Arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. DA Jose Garza's office declined to file it. Christmas Eve 2023: Arrested with another Glock. Out the next day. September 2024: He fled a trooper from a street takeover, crashed into another driver, hurled his Glock off an I-35 overpass, and jumped after it. Hours later he swore to police his car had been stolen. Ten weeks later, a man was killed. Five of the six home invasion suspects were already out on violent cases. The murder victim’s mother said they "should have never been free on bond." Now Forbes is back on the street.

I wish more people at Cato admitted they’re enthusiastically voting for statists. Truly.

Austin caught 26 taxpayer-funded nonprofits overbilling, missing deadlines, and failing their targets -- and recommended cutting exactly none of them. Some of these orgs billed the city for items they weren't allowed to charge, some turned in late or incomplete work, some missed the targets they said they would hit. Yet amazingly, city staff recommends these orgs continue to get paid, and council will vote tomorrow on extending these contracts. Austin spends $101 million a year on social services, and $54 million goes to homelessness nonprofits.

A white homeless man in Austin could wait longer for a bed than a black one with the same needs, because the city's waitlist system uses race to score which people deserve a bed faster.

Austin's homeless housing scoring system was designed so that white people would score lower. Most homeless people in Austin who want housing go through a single waitlist run by ECHO, a nonprofit the city funds to manage the local homeless system. Each person answers an assessment, gets a score, and higher scores get housed first. A few years ago, ECHO concluded the old assessment was "artificially prioritizing white and cisgender people" and said the system needed to undo "white male supremacist culture." So it built a new one. The new assessment doesn't ask about race explicitly. Instead, ECHO tested possible questions and kept the ones that black and non-white clients answered "yes" to at statistically higher rates. Questions that didn't produce that gap were dropped. ECHO's own explanation states the result plainly: "Black and Brown people will consistently score higher than white people and thus be connected more consistently to resources." Austin spends about $51.5 million a year on homelessness, including roughly $12 million on rapid rehousing, and this score means that who gets off the street first depends at least in part on their race.

Austin's homeless housing scoring system was designed so that white people would score lower. Most homeless people in Austin who want housing go through a single waitlist run by ECHO, a nonprofit the city funds to manage the local homeless system. Each person answers an assessment, gets a score, and higher scores get housed first. A few years ago, ECHO concluded the old assessment was "artificially prioritizing white and cisgender people" and said the system needed to undo "white male supremacist culture." So it built a new one. The new assessment doesn't ask about race explicitly. Instead, ECHO tested possible questions and kept the ones that black and non-white clients answered "yes" to at statistically higher rates. Questions that didn't produce that gap were dropped. ECHO's own explanation states the result plainly: "Black and Brown people will consistently score higher than white people and thus be connected more consistently to resources." Austin spends about $51.5 million a year on homelessness, including roughly $12 million on rapid rehousing, and this score means that who gets off the street first depends at least in part on their race.