{"id":352926,"date":"2026-06-27T20:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352926\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T20:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:05:23","slug":"getting-to-know-austin-billionaire-joe-lonsdale-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352926\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know Austin Billionaire Joe Lonsdale \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most Austinites are unaware that our city is home to a far-right billionaire working diligently, and very effectively, to criminalize homelessness. That person is Joe Lonsdale, and VOCAL-TX, the grassroots homeless advocates, are staging an all-night vigil<\/a> this Sunday at 8pm outside his think tank, the Cicero Institute. The vigil is part of VOCAL-TX\u2019s Billionaire Backers of Hate campaign, which hopes to familiarize Austinites with the billionaires living among us who push policies that dehumanize the homeless, separate families, and harm the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of the attacks that we\u2019re facing in Austin are coming down from the federal and state level,\u201d said VOCAL-TX\u2019s Paulette Soltani, who is organizing the vigil. \u201cAnd, sadly, we know that the federal level is so influenced by powerful billionaires. And there\u2019s a set of billionaires that are supporting the Trump administration\u2019s policies that are harming vulnerable people in Austin. They\u2019re influencing our policies, influencing our politics and our elections in this state, and they\u2019ve made Austin their home.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lonsdale is one of these. He\u2019s a billionaire in his mid-40s who made his fortune as a co-founder of the infamous defense contractor<\/a> Palantir. He moved to Austin in 2020, the same year as his confidant<\/a>, Elon Musk, bringing the Cicero Institute with him and ensconcing it at Rio Grande and 22nd Street, blocks from UT. Lonsdale has gone on to become a major figure in the Republican party, working alongside Musk<\/a> to get Donald Trump elected president in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Cicero Institute presents itself as a group of experts promoting capitalist solutions to healthcare and criminal justice issues. But it\u2019s best known for its efforts to criminalize homelessness. The group was a major player<\/a> in getting Texas to adopt a statewide camping ban in 2021. It has gotten similar measures passed in at least eight other states<\/a>. In 2025, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> echoing the Cicero Institute\u2019s proposals, which reject the \u201cHousing First\u201d model that emphasizes the importance of providing homes for unhoused people rather than institutionalizing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cicero Institute also provides model legislation<\/a> \u2013 language that state legislators can use to write laws \u2013 to Republicans who want to loosen involuntary civil commitment guidelines, so that homeless people suffering from mental illness or drug addiction can be rounded up and given psychiatric treatment against their will. On its website<\/a>, the Cicero Institute pushes for changes to the laws governing involuntary civil commitment \u201cto extend treatment requirements for those most severely ill from months to years<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May, Utah legislators rejected a Trump-backed plan sponsored by Gov. Spencer Cox that would have rounded up as many as 1,300 homeless Salt Lake City residents and forcibly medicated some of them at a camp on the edge of town. According to reporting in The New York Times<\/a>, the legislators balked because of the plan\u2019s costs and potential impact on civil liberties. However, they did approve \u201csignificant new money and discretion to provide the services [Cox] wanted at the campus, including programs that emphasize or compel treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Louisiana\u2019s governor approved a homelessness criminalization bill<\/a> promoted by the Cicero Institute<\/a> called the Streets to Success Act<\/a>. Under the new law, people repeatedly convicted of public camping can be offered treatment and probation, rather than prison, but are charged for the program\u2019s cost. In the very likely event that a homeless person is unable to pay, a judge can waive the program\u2019s costs or compel the unhoused person to work for free to pay off the debt. In an interview with Filter magazine<\/a>, Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center compared the new measure to the Jim Crow laws of the past, saying Louisiana legislators are \u201cnot really interested in getting people help, they\u2019re using the unhoused to build more camps, to normalize forced labor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here in Texas, with the 2027 legislative session six months away, Republican legislators are considering whether to amend state law to make it easier to detain and medicate homeless people against their will. In March, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick instructed the Senate\u2019s Health and Human Services Committee<\/a> to evaluate \u201ccompetency restoration for criminally charged [homeless] individuals awaiting trial, as well as processes for civil in-patient and out-patient commitments.\u201d He also ordered the committee to \u201cmake recommendations to prioritize the most acute populations for treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lonsdale is thinking about the upcoming legislative session too. On May 20, he went on Fox News\u2019 Will Cain Show<\/a> to urge state Republicans to subvert democracy in Austin. \u201cWe need to work with Governor Abbott, we need the Legislature to step up in 2027 \u2013 our next session \u2013 we need to take away some of these rights from Austin,\u201d Lonsdale said. He reiterated the sentiment on X, saying, \u201cFor decades, we let progressives ruin great cities like Austin\u201d \u2013 oblivious to the dissonance of Austin being simultaneously \u201cruined\u201d and \u201cgreat\u201d \u2013 and urging state Republicans to \u201ctake more power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soltani said that Lonsdale\u2019s money and political influence makes Republicans like Abbott capitulate. \u201cThey fold, they follow, they fall in line, and this is exactly the fear that we have in Austin,\u201d Soltani said. \u201cThese billionaire backers of hate, when they want things to happen, our governor follows suit, and so does our Legislature. So whether it\u2019s Elon Musk doing whatever he wants in our state, or the lesser-known Joe Lonsdale, these guys are governing our state and making policy decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article appears in June 26 \u2022 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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