At its meeting Thursday, April 9, City Council approved unanimously $15 million of relief for low-income Austinites thrown into financial turmoil by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money is intended primarily for people left behind by federal relief packages, or who simply need more help than those efforts will provide. The resolution authorizes City Manager Spencer Cronk to expand existing contracts with the city’s nonprofit partners to distribute the aid.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from our communities that people need help now,” said Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza, who introduced the resolution in collaboration with Council Member Greg Casar. The goal is to get those in need relief with a focus on “equity and expediency,” Garza added, and the best way to do that is through existing social service contracts.

Earlier in the week, the city’s economic forecasters projected the Austin metro area could lose more than 260,000 jobs during the COVID-19 economic downturn. The workers hardest hit will be in the food and hospitality industries.

How the aid will be distributed, and to which nonprofits, is still being worked out. At Thursday's meeting, Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden said her office would release more information on the application process today April 10. APH plans to begin disbursing the money in the Relief in a State of Emergency (RISE) fund by April 20, in time to help people pay rent on May 1.

A Friday morning press release said APH would be working with the city’s Equity Office to “ensure funds are provided to community-based organizations providing services to our marginalized communities.” Social service providers should email RISEFunding@AustinTexas.gov for more information.

Advocates from a large number of local social justice and advocacy organizations are calling on city and county leaders to step up and help those most marginalized in the community amid the escalating coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter sent on Monday, March 16, to Austin Mayor Steve Adler, City Council, the Travis County Commissioners Court, and other officials, the advocates offered an extensive and comprehensive list of demands that target public education; welfare; housing; worker, immigrant, and disability rights; medical services; child­ care; elder care; law enforcement; courts; and jails.

Among their recommendations, the groups urged city officials to take a "firm stance" on social distancing to help slow the spread of COVID-19 – limiting operations and hours of businesses like bars and restaurants to keep those most susceptible among us safe, as the city and county announced on Tuesday. "We know from other major cities that Austin's community outbreaks are more likely to occur within our most vulnerable populations," said Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Employees Association, during a (virtual) press conference Monday morning. "Given that we face an unprecedented situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, community advocates believe it warrants an unprecedented, swift, and necessary response from local and county authorities with the power to save and protect as many of the most vulnerable people as possible."

With ICUs already at limited capacity, Xie expects critical care transports to increase and urges local leaders to ensure patient treatment supplies like respirators, IV medication pumps, updated ventilators, and portable ultrasound units are well stocked – equipment that hasn't been available to EMS, she said. On Tuesday, Austin Interim Public Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott – who is filling that post while also continuing to serve as EMS medical director – told reporters the city and county are working to ensure "adequate training, adequate personal protective equipment, and adequate access to testing" to EMS and other first responders.

Release for the Prisoners

The crisis is especially daunting for those in overcrowded jails, prisons, and immigrant detention centers, the groups stress. "We know that medical care is less than adequate and there are many deaths in these facilities every year, and in times of crisis, conditions of confinement only worsen," said Claudia Muñoz, acting executive co-director at Grassroots Leadership. Immigrants should receive health care regardless of status and be protected from interaction with ICE and CBP when accessing those services, she said.

The coronavirus crisis has evoked a range of ideas over how best to respond to changing circumstances and increasing risks. On the local law enforcement front – still in campaign season – criminal justice reform advocates and public officials have gotten crossways.

The advocates are publicly pressing for quicker or more extensive action, and the officials respond, thanks for your help – we’ve already been acting, as quickly as we can.

Early this week, Workers Defense Project director (and District Attorney candidate) José Garza sent a letter to a number of public officials – Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and the County Commissioners, Mayor Steve Adler and the City Council, judges Brenda Kennedy (District Court) and Sherry Statman (Municipal Court), District Attorney Margaret Moore, County Attorney David Escamilla, and Sheriff Sally Hernandez. Garza cited “the spread of COVID-19” and requested that the officials act “to implement critical changes to how criminal justice is administered in Travis County.”

The changes listed by Garza included: ending arrests for misdemeanors and state jail felonies (with exceptions for public safety); jail release for all inmates (except for public safety); guarantee safe attorney access and adequate health care, and related measures. Garza added, “I want to be clear: most of the policies I am asking the County and City to implement are things we should do irrespective of the threat from COVID-19.”

Garza’s list of requests was about a page in length. Later that Monday* [Correction: posted Friday, March 13; see below], a nine-page list of “demands” was released by a smorgasbord of activist organizations (Grassroots Leadership, the Texas Fair Defense Project, Garza’s Workers Defense Project, and many others) and a couple dozen local activists.

In a letter addressed to Austin Mayor Steve Adler and the City Council, the Travis County Commissioners Court, and other officials, the groups offer a comprehensive list of demands that target public education, welfare, housing, worker, immigrant, and disability rights, medical services, childcare, elder care, law enforcement, courts, and jails. (The complete list of demands is included below this post; the full letter can be viewed here.)

Among their recommendations, the groups urge city officials to take a “firm stance” on social distancing to help slow the spread of COVID-19 – not only banning public gatherings (as the city has done for 250 or more people) but following the lead of New York and Chicago by limiting operations and hours of business like bars and restaurants to keep those most susceptible among us safe.

“We know from other major cities that Austin’s community outbreaks are more likely to occur within our most vulnerable populations,” said Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Employees Association, during a (virtual) press conference Monday morning, March 16. “Given that we face an unprecedented situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, community advocates believe it warrants an unprecedented, swift, and necessary response from local and county authorities with the power to save and protect as many of the most vulnerable people as possible.”

Racial Disparities in Drug Arrests: The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, Grassroots Leadership, and UT Law Civil Rights Clinic have released preliminary key findings of a new report highlighting racial disparities in low-level drug possession arrests in Travis County. Analyzing less-than-a-gram drug possession arrests in a one-year period, findings revealed Black residents represented 29.4% of the arrests studied while only comprising less than 9% of the county's population. In arrests involving Latinx individuals, 57% originated from motor vehicle stops. For Black motorists, that number was 44%. The report will be published in full later this month.

As we reported Feb. 7, last week the seven judges of the Travis County misdemeanor criminal courts issued a "Standing Order" to officially expand the use of "personal recognizance bonds" for people arrested in the county. In principle, the order ("effective immediately") would authorize those accused of most nonviolent offenses to be released on personal bonds (i.e., without cash bail). Personal bonds are essentially a written promise to return for court appointments or face sanctions for noncompliance. ("Travis Judges Loosen Misdemeanor Bond Requirements," Feb. 7).

On Tuesday, the county's Justice Plan­ning staff, District Attorney Margaret Moore, County Attorney David Escamilla, and others briefed the Commissioners Court on the background and details of the new policy – still a work in progress, in development over several years and relying on jail population research by county staff. Currently, an arrested person appears before a city magistrate following a case and risk assessment by the county Pretrial Services staff. In Travis County, most people accused of misdemeanors (about 71%) are already released on personal bonds. It's not immediately clear how many more may be eligible under the new policy, but the order sets formal standards for use by magistrates.

When I was arrested for my first drug offense, I was 19 years old. The War on Drugs told elected officials that Black people like me were the villains of the story and needed to be locked away in the name of public safety. Along with millions across the country, I was deemed disposable. For the next 20 years, I couldn't find a job or find a place to live in, and I panicked every time I was pulled over for fear that once again that disposable label would be placed on my forehead.

Today I celebrate my life as a partner, parent, son, brother, colleague, and friend in successful recovery from substance use disorder and mental illness. I do not owe my recovery to the criminal justice system; locking me in a cage harmed me and drove me further away from wellness. My recovery was made possible thanks to an amazing support network of friends and family dedicated to my best interests. As a formerly incarcerated Black man with behavioral health diagnoses, my success is a statistical anomaly – but it doesn't have to be. When we stop investing in systems of policing and punishment, we make space to create alternatives that promote wellness and healing for everyone.

Earlier this month, Grassroots Leadership, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, and the UT Law Civil Rights Clinic released a preliminary key findings report. The report finds that – in a city that systematically pushes Black people out of Austin and dwindled the population to just over 9% – Black people constitute over a third of all drug arrests. Half of the arrests resulted from minor traffic stops like driving with an expired registration or failure to signal. Half of possession of controlled substance cases directly related to medical or mental health crises, resulting in jail time of up to two years, delaying or denying the immediate need to respond to medical and mental health needs.