The passage of Senate Bill 1333 (2025) addresses an important gap in Texas’ statutory framework by providing property owners with “clear legal tools to remove unauthorized occupants and [abate concerns]
that squatters can cause financial harm by damaging or neglecting property” (SB 1333 Bill Analysis, 2025, p. 1).This legislation was the culmination of a long investigatory process that ultimately determined a “need to ensure that individual rights are protected, and that the State’s laws provide balance to property owners and bona fide tenants, both in structure and enforcement” (Senate Committee on Local Government, 2024, p. 50).
Too Close for Comfort
The last decade of homeless policy has been an abject failure. Currently the United States is facing the highest levels of homelessness and encounters with the mentally ill are increasing in Texas’ large cities. The blame can be squarely fixed on ‘Housing First’ which has prioritized a ‘one size fits all’ approach while ignoring the underlying causes of chronic homelessness. When...