CICERO INSTITUTE PROFITS OFF PAIN: VICTIMS OF CICERO HOLD PROTEST OUTSIDE BILLIONAIRE-BACKED THINK TANK OFFICES IN AUSTIN
Watch the Cicero Institute Protest Live Here; Read Statement From Victims of Cicero; See Coverage of VOCAL-TX’s Fight Back Against Billionaires Town Hall
Protest Follows VOCAL-TX Rally at Capitol Calling for End to Homelessness and Preventable Overdose Deaths
AUSTIN, T.X. — Today, dozens of activists gathered outside the Cicero Institute – based right in Austin, Texas – to protest its work to take away common-sense, money saving, and data-driven solutions, while pushing policies that ticket and arrest the poor. It’s not just Trump or Elon Musk we have to worry about. The Cicero Institute and its billionaire founder, Joe Lonsdale, have been pushing ineffective, costly, and harmful approaches to address these crises by ticketing and arresting people too poor to afford a place to live. The Cicero Institute policies have made being homeless a crime, at the cost of instead investing in proven solutions like housing, services and care.
Victims of Cicero — a delegation of people from Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, New York and Grants Pass, Oregon — delivered this statement to tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale at the Cicero Institute’s headquarters.
“We’ve lived through the policies that Joe Lonsdale and the Cicero Institute push. We’ve been ticketed just for trying to survive. We’ve been harassed by police for having nowhere else to go. We’ve had our belongings destroyed by police,” said Maurika Smith, VOCAL-TX leader and member of the Victims of Cicero delegation.
“The billionaire agenda aims to pass policies that make the rich even richer, while the rest of us struggle to survive,” said Eli Cortez, VOCAL-TX Organizer. “They push policies to ticket and arrest people too poor to afford a place to live, instead of fighting to make housing more affordable, stop evictions, or ensure people have a place to live.”
“Kentucky is no stranger to the violent, toxic policies the Cicero Institute is pushing,” said Shameka Parrish-Wright, Director of VOCAL-KY. “Our people are being ticketed for simply trying to survive, and even when people do show up after being cited, there still isn’t enough housing to go around. We’re tired of our laws being dictated by billionaires who don’t know what it’s like to go without a meal or a safe place to stay. Enough is enough.”
“The Cicero Institute, Donald Trump, and their billionaire friends like Elon Musk are peddling backwards, harmful, and expensive policies that will only make homelessness worse. America can be a country where everyone – no matter who they are or how much they have in their bank account – has a place to live. Our elected officials should be solving our housing and homelessness problems instead of making them worse,” said Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center.
BACKGROUND:
Lawmakers in Texas and beyond are being lobbied by the billionaire-backed Cicero Institute – based right here in Austin – to pass laws that ticket and arrest people struggling to survive, doing nothing to create opportunities for housing or care.
As the Trump Administration, Governor Abbott, and GOP are pushing tax cuts to the richest people while gutting federal programs meant to end homelessness and save lives, communities across Texas have few resources to address these issues. State lawmakers must fund policies that are proven to actually solve these problems, like affordable housing, mental health services, and care.
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