Texas attorney general files lawsuit against homeless navigation center in south Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a south Austin homeless navigation center "for operating as a common nuisance in violation of Texas law," according to an Office of Attorney General press release.

The Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center is located near Menchaca Road and Ben White Boulevard. It offers services like connecting people experiencing homelessness to food and housing help.

According to the center’s website, staff helped nearly 11,000 clients last year, served almost 80,000 meals and answered roughly 30,000 hotline calls.

"It is regrettable that the 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,” said Mark Hilbelink, Executive Director of Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center. “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.”

Hilbelink also noted that the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center operates out of and through Sunrise Community Church, which is "protected under the First Amendment and the U.S. Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, as well as the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

Meanwhile, the OAG said it did an investigation which found the center to be a "magnet" for drug and criminal activity. The OAG also highlighted how close the center is to a nearby elementary school.

“Drug activity and criminal behavior facilitated by this organization have hijacked an entire neighborhood,” Paxton said in the 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.”

Paxton asked the court for a temporary injunction which would prevent Sunrise from continuing to operate, the release states.

Work being done with the city of Austin

"I think we've all known that the location of Sunrise is not ideal, and certainly there is activity around there that is really difficult for the neighborhood," said Council Member Ryan Alter, the representative for District 5, where Sunrise resides. "It's something that I've been working on for...well, since the moment I got into office, to try to help alleviate the pressure in that neighborhood and we're actually making some real progress. So I understand where the lawsuit came from."

Alter says he's fielded complaints from community members about Sunrise, which is why he's previously held meetings to better understand how to move forward. One of those community meetings was referenced in the OAG's lawsuit.

From those meetings came a budget amendment from Alter that will create alternate locations across Austin for people to receive walk-up homelessness services to alleviate some of the congestion in this south Austin neighborhood. That budget amendment was approved and those locations are being worked on right now.

"So real progress is being made, but I understand where the community is. We're looking for action right now," Alter said.