A group that has opposed city policy changes allowing camping in many public spaces in Austin announced plans Monday to take camping rules to voters in November.

Matt Mackowiak, chair of the Travis County Republican Party and co-founder of the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Save Austin Now, said the group plans to bring a petition that would force the issue onto the November ballot. They seek to reinstate a ban on camping in public throughout the city, restore ordinances banning sitting and lying in public places — including the University of Texas campus and downtown — and ban panhandling overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Austin City Council members in June voted to rescind rules that previously prevented people who are homeless from camping, sitting and lying in public places, provided they did not pose a threat to themselves or others. The reversal brought accolades from homeless care providers and social justice advocates, who long held such policies criminalized homelessness and led people into a cycle of incarceration and poverty.

But others, including business owners, residents in neighborhoods near homeless campsites, and police union officials — as well as the state’s top elected leader — said the sites resulted in unsafe, unsanitary conditions as shelters and campsites in public view began to appear and swell in size and complexity throughout the city.

"We believe that (this) would take us back to essentially where we were in June, with some slight improvements to city policy, and we think there will be overwhelming public support for these provisions if we go back to this kind of system," Mackowiak said.

Mackowiak launched a petition on Change.org shortly after City Council members adjusted the rules to put the ban back in place. By Monday, the online petition had more than 88,000 signatures. For the initiative from Save Austin Now to get onto the ballot, the group must get signatures from 5% or 20,000 of Austin’s voters, whichever number is smaller.

The group has until July to gather the signatures, Mackowiak said.

Getting the measure on the ballot would only be the first step in a process that could take considerably more time to find a long-term resolution. He said ballot language from Austin City Council members could become a hurdle, along with the likelihood of lawsuits should the initiative win approval.

The U.S. Supreme Court at the end of 2019 let stand a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned a law in Boise, Idaho, preventing people who are homeless from sleeping in public places.

The 9th Circuit ruling said the camping ban there amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which violated the Eighth Amendment.

But Mackowiak said the ruling does not apply to Texas, and any ruling on the ban that would affect the state would have to come from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court itself.

Additionally, he said the case in Boise was found to be unconstitutional because the city had nowhere to send people who are homeless.

He said since Austin has a camping area provided by Gov. Greg Abbott, a 5-acre swath of state-owned land near U.S. 183 and Montopolis Drive, and plans to increase shelter and supportive housing space over the next several years, that argument may not hold for Austin.

Abbott last week offered to lease that land to the local ATX Helps coalition of local businesses for a temporary shelter. The site currently is home to more than 140 people. In a separate effort, the city is working toward acquiring 300 bridge shelter units by purchasing motels to convert into long-term housing options. So far, the city has selected one hotel to purchase that holds 87 units. Even with those added units, the housing gap for Austin’s homeless would be significant.

An assessment from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition in January estimated the city needs 1,000 permanent supportive housing units and 2,000 rapid rehousing units to meet demand.

Matt Mollica, executive director of ECHO, said the petition was predictable, but he thinks the people of Austin believe "criminalizing homelessness" is not the right thing to do.

"I think it's the same as it was back before the ordinance change. If we don't have places for people to go, we can't criminalize the fact that they are experiencing homelessness," he said. "We need to do a better job of giving people places to go."