CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-us.org, Paulette Soltani, Paulette@vocal-tx.org
VOCAL-TX RESPONDS TO BILLIONAIRE JOE LONSDALE LIES AND ACCUSATIONS AGAINST UNHOUSED TEXANS
Cicero Institute’s Policies Don’t Work; Cicero Pushes to Incarcerate People Who Can’t Afford Housing, Continuing the Cycle of Homelessness while Enriching Profiteers
Billionaire Founder Boo-Hoos Unhoused People Using Their Voices to Expose Cicero Lies
AUSTIN, TX — This week, VOCAL-TX along with allies from across the state and country worked to uplift effective solutions to Texas’ historic housing and overdose crisis. We also exposed the harmful and cruel approaches of the Cicero Institute and its founder, tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale. See some coverage from our town hall, and our protest at the Cicero Institute. Cicero Institute Founder and tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale responded with lies and misinformation. In response, VOCAL-TX released the following statement, attributable to Paulette Soltani, Co-Director of VOCAL-TX:
“Yesterday, Joe Lonsdale called our protest at the Cicero Institute ‘intimidating.’ The real outrage is that children can freeze to death sleeping in a car – while the richest men in our country push for less access to housing. The reality is a person can die from being bulldozed while homeless and sleeping in a tent, while Cicero uses actual ‘mafia tactics’ to lobby for camping bans, and threaten people with tickets and arrest.
Poor and struggling Texans are using their voices to speak to the true horrors that the Cicero Institute — and the pathetic politicians who take their money — are pushing. Billionaires like Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute promote policies for ticketing, arresting, incarcerating and institutionalizing people who cannot afford a place to live, and who need treatment and care.
Lonsdale stands to profit from these policies as a major investor in the private prison industry. They use words like ‘compassionate’ to describe their ineffective, costly and harmful policies because they know Texans, and people across the nation, would not support their policies if they knew what Cicero is really doing. They accuse organizations that have fought for years for real housing and solutions to the overdose crisis – grounded in evidence – as supporting policies that keep people on the streets.
Billionaires like Lonsdale and his Cicero Institute lie. They lie about what works and what doesn’t. They lie about the people who fight for these policies. And then, despite all their power, money and influence, they try to silence protest and free speech. But we will keep organizing and exposing their lies, because our future depends on it.”
BACKGROUND:
Big cities to small towns across Texas – and the nation – are facing a humanitarian crisis of homelessness, overdose and unmet mental health needs. Over 25,000 Texans are homeless on any given night, and over 5,000 die from preventable overdoses each year. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are proven, effective solutions that could save lives, reduce homelessness, increase the number of people in care and address public safety and community concerns. This is what VOCAL-TX fights for and believes in.
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