Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that he is suing to close down the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center (SHNC) in South Austin, which he claimed operates within feet of Joslin Elementary School while facilitating depravity and drug use.
The SHNC’s operations are a magnet for crime, drug abuse and public indecency, becoming a menace to both local residents and the kids at Joslin, according to the lawsuit. This allegedly includes urination and defecation in public. Violence has taken place both on and in the vicinity of the elementary school, according to Paxton.
People who frequent the SHNC have threatened people using machetes, according to resident testimony. Public masturbation and break-ins at nearby homes and businesses have also occurred, Paxton’s office said. The lawsuit accused the SHNC of facilitating the alleged behavior by distributing drug paraphernalia.
“Drug activity and criminal behavior facilitated by this organization have hijacked an entire neighborhood,” Paxton said in a Tuesday press release. “By operating a taxpayer-funded drug paraphernalia giveaway next to an elementary school, this organization is threatening students’ health and safety and unjustly worsening daily life for every single resident of the neighborhood. We will shut this unlawful nuisance behavior down.” (RELATED: Dallas May Have Just Passed An Illegal Ballot Measure, Texas AG Alleges)
Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Austin Taxpayer-Funded “Homeless Navigation Center” for Facilitating Public Drug Use and Violent Incidents Next to Elementary School: https://t.co/IxFGQY5K1Z
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) November 26, 2024
In August 2024, the city of Austin approved a grant of up to $1,083,530 for the SHNC for 14 months. The grant had the option of four 1 year extensions for up to a total of up to $4,417,650. The stated goal of the grant was to enable the SHNC to provide digital information to the homeless through a phone hotline and informative website. Notably, one of the criteria of the loan was the applicant’s rating on “cultural competence/racial equity,” another instance of the city emphasizing race-based criteria.
The SHNC made local news in 2022 after the shelter became the site to Texas’s first Narcan vending machine, according to The Austin Chronicle. Naloxone, or Narcan, is a medicine used to treat opioid overdoses that can be delivered via syringe or nasal spray. The SHNC also hosts the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, an organization with the stated mission of ending the War on Drugs.
Today is Overdose Awareness Day. At THRA we fight daily to end the overdose crisis through harm reduction services, education, and advocacy. We demand an end to the punitive measures used to address this crisis. #NoMoreDrugWar pic.twitter.com/RgNZTlFvZP
— Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (@TexasHRA) August 31, 2024
Paxton’s lawsuit alleged that the THRA provides syringes, which it calls “sterile harm reduction supplies,” at the SHNC. Every Thursday, a THRA mobile van hands out these syringes across the street from Joslin Elementary during school hours, according to the lawsuit.
Residents said the homeless at the SHNC have created meth labs in unoccupied residences, according to the lawsuit. News reports claimed used syringes were found feet from the school. Many police reports revealed that police officers often arrested people affiliated with SHNC while they were in the possession of drugs, the lawsuit alleged.
The SHNC sent the Daily Caller a press release in response to a request for comment.
“It is regrettable that Attorney General Paxton took this route, especially during the week of Thanksgiving, but Sunrise intends to keep offering services to people in our community who need them,” Executive Director of SHNC Mark Hilbelink said. “We are committed to being a good neighbor. We will continue to work, every day, to support Joslin Elementary School, our neighborhood, and our entire community.”
Editor’s note: The Attorney General sued the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, not Austin. This article has been corrected accordingly.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
