Abbott Warns of Retaliation by State
on Homeless Camping Despite Intent

Capitol Inside
September 14, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott has escalated a war on local Texas officials with threats of sanctions against cities and counties that fail to comply strictly with a new state law that targets homeless people with expanded state regulations on public camping.

"Local entities like yours should uphold the rule of law by enforcing this public camping ban," Abbott said in letter that he and Attorney General Ken Paxton sent late last week to the Texas Association of Counties, the Texas Municipal League and individual governmental entities. "Failure to do so could result in costly litigation and denial of state grant funds."

The Texas Legislature approved the prohibition in question in House Bill 1925 in the final days of the regular session this spring. But the measure was sold by Republican House and Senate sponsors as a an attempt to deal with a problem they perceived in the Texas Capital City without having a significant affect on other areas.

The bill had a measure of bipartisan support - with all of the opposition in both chambers coming from Democrats. Fifteen House Democrats sided with Republicans in a 101-45 vote to accept Senate amendments to HB 1925 on the last night for passing legislation in regular session.

The measure cleared the upper chamber on a vote of 27-4 with seven Democrats on board a week before.

The aggressive and intimidating attempts to enforce the new law could surpass the bounds of the spirit of the plan if not its letter as well based on assurances that GOP State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake gave Democrats who saw the potential for substantial overreach by the state.

Democratic State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston before the final vote on HB 1925 expressed concerns on potential interference by the state in cities that already had public camping bans like San Antonio and his own.

"And just to be absolutely clear, it is not your legislative intent that this legislation would allow the AG s office to sue those cities if they have existing ordinances that are as strong as you intend in this bill? Wu asked before the final House.

"If those ordinances in the city are at least as strong as those items that are listed here, then we appreciate those cities doing that," Capriglione responded.

The conversation between Capriglione and Wu is recorded in the House Journal as "a statement of legislative intent" on HB 1925.