Next week city council will consider loosening a solicitation ordinance many claim target the homeless; however, the city’s Downtown Commission Wednesday said City Council should table the action until a public input process takes place. The item before City Council at its June 28 meeting would relax a city ordinance targeting aggressive solicitation by removing restrictions on soliciting downtown at night, within a block of grade schools and childcare facilities, on marked crosswalks, sidewalks, street highways and parks. Many have claimed the solicitation ordinance and others—the ban on camping and sitting or laying down in public spaces—unfairly prey upon homeless individuals by making it easier for police to hand out citations. The citations come with court dates and fines that homeless individuals have difficulty fulfilling. This can lead to arrest warrants and criminal records that create more obstacles for those wanting to exit homelessness, they say. The city auditor’s office published a report in November 2017 that outlined these issues with the ordinance and warned city leaders of potential legal risks with keeping the laws on the books. Representatives from the Austin Police Department said not only are the ordinances meant to maintain order, but they also create a necessary buffer that allows officers an alternative to charging homeless individuals with more weighty misdemeanors. Earlier this month, assistant police chief Justin Newsom agreed with homeless advocates, saying that the real issue is an extreme lack of city resources for those experiencing homelessness. The Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or the ARCH, the city's lone homeless shelter, only has 100 beds while Austin's homeless population ranges between 2,000 and 7,000. The Downtown Commission—a council-appointed commission that advises City Council on policies and projects that impact downtown Austin—said Wednesday City Council should hold off on loosening the solicitation ordinance before a robust public input process takes place. Commission chair Joel Sher called the proposed changes to the ordinance “substantial” and said the item seemed to show up out of nowhere. Although Sher supported eventually modifying the ordinance, he said it should not happen before the public gets a chance to weigh in. Vice chair Jennifer Bristol echoed Sher’s comments, saying the council needed to avoid a piecemeal approach and tackle all three ordinances related to homelessness at once and after a public input process. The commission unanimously passed the recommendation. City Council is scheduled to take the item up on Thursday, June 28.