Updated at 5:49 p.m.: Revised to include Adler's comments and an Abbott spokesman's reaction.

AUSTIN -- Gov. Greg Abbott has given Austin 30 days to stem what he calls the city's "mounting homelessness crisis," warning if improvements aren't made, he'll unleash five state agencies with powers to intervene and protect public health and safety.

On Wednesday, Abbott sternly wrote Austin Mayor Steve Adler and admonished him for not reversing the City Council's June rescission of prohibitions on sitting or sleeping in public and panhandling in certain parts of the city that didn't specifically prohibit it.

Abbott cited news reports about used needles and feces littering certain locations, and the arrest early last month of a homeless man accused of assault with injury of a woman.

"As the governor of Texas, I have the responsibility to protect the health and safety of all Texans, including Austin residents," Abbott wrote.

"Further inaction by you and the Austin City Council will leave me no choice other than to use the tools available to the state of Texas to ensure that people are protected from health and safety concerns caused by the Austin homeless policies," the Republican governor said.

Later Wednesday, Adler, who is a Democrat, said Austin Police Chief Brian Manley has assured him officers have the legal tools they need to keep the streets and sidewalks safe.

"There are some people that read this letter as a threat," he said. "I want you to know I understand the seriousness of this letter but I choose to read this letter as an offer of assistance. And this is not a city challenge, it is a state challenge."

Adler, a condemnation lawyer and former legislative aide who easily won re-election last year to a second four-year term, said it makes no sense to drive the homeless into woods, watersheds and dark alleys. They need housing and services, he said.

He said it's an "urban myth" to suggest that Austin's homeless population increased since city ordinances were changed in June. Today, the homeless simply are living in more visible places, he said. That disturbs some residents, he acknowledged. But he said driving homeless people back into the shadows with arrests and citations isn't the answer.

"The way that you fix this is to take people out of homelessness," he said.

Abbott spokesman John Wittman criticized Adler's comments.

"The mayor said nothing about eliminating feces and used needles from streets and sidewalks," Wittman said. "That should be disturbing to all Texans. The city must immediately address ... feces and used needles in public areas."

The new ordinance allows camping as long as people aren't endangering themselves or impeding the use of public property. It has sparked an outcry by some residents -- and especially GOP leaders such as Abbott.

However, advocates for the homeless said the previous prohibitions wrongly criminalized homelessness.

Imagine if he had the same sense of urgency after two mass shootings in Texas the past 60 days. https://t.co/TMSEEC2Dra — Abhi Rahman (@abhirahmantx) October 2, 2019

Abbott reminded Adler that the Austin city charter charges the mayor and council with maintaining "the welfare, health, morals, comfort, safety and convenience" of residents.

"That charge demands a robust response to the mounting homelessness crisis in Austin," the governor wrote. "The status quo is increasingly intolerable and a swift course correction is needed to protect the health and safety of Texans, and of the many visitors to Austin."

Abbott noted the state Health and Human Services Commission, to check the spread of disease, has authority to investigate and "impose control measures."

Similarly, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality could demand of Austin a plan for protecting stormwater drainage systems and local water quality from "elevated concentration of E. coli in Austin creeks or watersheds," he wrote.

The state police can intervene to protect state employees and visitors to state agencies, the transportation department can do likewise to make sure homeless people's belongings don't obstruct roadways, and the attorney general's office can seek civil penalties and injunctions to stop public health nuisances, he said.

Last month, according to the Austin American-Statesman, Adler called "for some level of ordinance clarification and corrective action."

Austin Mayor Steve Adler (left, with Gov. Greg Abbott at Apple's announcement of a new campus) has questioned the city's previous issuance of 18,000 citations to homeless people over three years as an unproductive approach that criminalizes homelessness. (Ricardo Brazziell / AP)

The city manager could move people camping outside the downtown Austin Resource Center for the Homeless to better and safer places; require people to leave 4 feet of clearance on sidewalks and to stay 6 feet away from building entrances; and bar people from camping in areas that officials have deemed "the most unsafe," the newspaper reported.

However, the council delayed any action on changing the camping and obstruction ordinances until its next meeting, Oct. 17.

The deliberate pace appeared to irritate Abbott.

"Austin has had several opportunities to solve the problems, to no avail," he wrote. "Texans cannot be expected to wait further to ensure their health and safety needs are met."

Abbott closed with this warning:

"As a result, I will give you until Nov. 1, 2019, to demonstrate consequential improvement in the Austin homelessness crisis and the danger it poses to the health and safety of the public. If meaningful reforms are not implemented by then, I will direct every applicable state agency to act to fulfill my responsibility to protect the health and safety of Texans in your jurisdiction."