The sun pushed down, bright and insistent, on the bridge above the encampment. Following a dirt path on the north side of St. Elmo Road, we dropped to a cool, shaded space. Figures reclined on a concrete skirt under the bridge. The concrete ran somewhat level for 8 feet, then sloped steeply to a dead drop, 10 feet above railroad tracks. Down in the channel below, refuse lay in a continuous stream along both sides of the rails.
Puma, a thin, 47-year-old homeless man, stood talking in the shade with Alfredo Reyes, a worker with the advocacy group VOCAL-TX. Puma and his friends had found a notice zip-tied to a tree near the bridge two days earlier. The notice announced the city’s intention to clear the camp – or, in the words of the homeless community, to sweep it.
“Camping in this public area violates Texas Penal Code 48.05 and Austin City Code 9-4-11,” the notice read. “All personal property must be removed by the service time and date noted below.”…