Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton Slams Rad­i­cal Austin Judge for Keep­ing Dan­ger­ous Vagrant Shel­ter Open After Stab­bing as Stu­dents Return to Near­by Ele­men­tary School

Attorney General Ken Paxton condemned Travis County District Court Judge Aurora Martinez-Jones for refusing to hear the State's emergency request to shut down the Austin-based Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, which operates next to an elementary school.

“It’s disgusting that this leftist judge would jeopardize the safety of these elementary students by allowing a hotspot for drugged-out, violent vagrants to continue operating as the school year starts,” said Attorney General Paxton. “If Texas kids being stuck by needles or endangered by violent vagrants isn’t an ‘emergency,’ then what is? I will continue to defend Texas schoolchildren when others fail to protect them.”

Attorney General Paxton sought the emergency temporary restraining order (“TRO”) before the Fall semester began. The filing followed a violent stabbing at the homeless center—underscoring the immediate threat the facility poses to schoolchildren. Then, hours after Judge Martinez-Jones denied the request for an emergency hearing, a child at Joslin Elementary was stuck by a hypodermic needle found on the playground, potentially exposing the student to HIV, hepatitis, and other dangerous pathogens. Attorney General Paxton then sent an additional letter to the court urging the judge to grant the TRO. The court has yet to respond to the letter.

In November 2024, Attorney General Paxton sued Sunrise for violating Texas law by drastically harming the quality of life in the area and endangering neighborhood residents, local businesses, and the students of nearby Joslin Elementary School. Sunrise, which received taxpayer funding through the City of Austin, operates mere feet from an elementary school. Students and staff “bear witness to the homeless walking around naked, fornicating, relieving themselves in public, and engaging in open drug use.” 

The vagrants drawn to Sunrise have at times forced the school to enter into “lockdown” due to violent behavior, endangering the safety of the students. The Attorney General’s attempts to obtain a temporary injunction hearing to protect Joslin Elementary and the surrounding community have repeatedly been delayed by Sunrise’s gamesmanship, indifferent Travis County judges, and an inefficient central docketing system.

To read the letter sent to the Austin judge after a student was stuck by a hypodermic needle and potentially exposed to dangerous pathogens like HIV, click here.