Looking At Solving Its Growing Homelessness Problems, Austin Finally Turns To The Obvious Answer: Color-Coding.

What are those violet trash bags about? How Austin hopes to encourage homeless population to clean up their areas.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — For the next six weeks you may see violet-colored trash bags in certain sections of Austin.

It’s a new program the city is trying out to encourage those experiencing homelessness to clean up after themselves.

But many are still skeptical of its effectiveness.

“The trash buildup is obnoxious,” said Colin O’Toole, who works at Roppolo’s Pizzaria. “They are homeless; they are not worried about trash on the sidewalk, trash in the alley, trash on the street.”

He works next to the ARCH, where a large homeless population gathers daily. But the problem exists all throughout the city.

“We found that by offering someone a trash bag and a designated area for collection, that we got a high level of compliance,” said Taylor Cook, the program manager for the City of Austin’s Service Design Lab. “People really appreciated that service and the dignity of being able to take care of their household waste in a way that most Austinites take for granted.”

 

(Via Iowahawk, who tweets, “Here’s an idea: instead of hiring 6 millennials to sit around a conference table and brainstorm graphic design ideas for 4 hobo camp trash boxes, send them there actually pick up the trash”)

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h/t ED

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