Austin hair salon owners fear they’ll have to close after attacks on their business by the homeless

The owners of a hair salon in Austin have recorded the moment a crazed man from a nearby homeless camp approached their glass storefront swinging a piece of timber.

Texas hairdressers Laura North and Erin Mutschler say the distressing event was the latest in a series that have forced them to consider closing their business for good.

Despite being one of the major cities in a traditionally Republican state, Austin is under Democrat leadership, and seemingly joining the ranks of San Francisco and Portland as it experiences a surge in homelessness.

According to North, such incidents outside Headspace Salon, which she started with Mutschler four years ago, have been happening around twice a week in the last six months and police usually nearly an hour to respond.

A recent incident in which a crazed man waved a piece of timber at them terrified both patrons and staff

In a video recorded from the salon, women can be heard screaming as the man threateningly approaches the store waving the piece of wood, which was still attached to a lump of concrete.

‘It feels like the city dropped a bunch of children and women in the middle of a war zone with no training and they are just hoping for no casualties,’ North told  local outlet KXAN. 

‘We’ve dealt with those types of men repeatedly for the last couple of weeks,’ she added. ‘We really did think that somebody might die.’ 

‘I would definitely say the last six months are the worst we’ve seen,’ she later told Fox News. ‘We have a bunch of women working in here most of the time. 

‘When you have a 250-pound man charging your storefront with a concrete pole you kind of feel hopeless, especially knowing the police are going to take so long to arrive.’

North says such incidents outside Headspace Salon, which she started with Mutschler, have been happening around twice a week in the last six months

Three years ago Austin’s city council ended a ban on homeless camping which had been in place for 23 years, the Texas Tribune reported.

That caused a surge in the visibility of homelessness. In response to the crisis, voters in Austin quickly imposed a new ban in May 2021, reversing the the short stint of legalized homeless camping.

But those legislative changes drove swathes of the city’s homeless population into a number of concentrated camps, one of which is around the corner from Headspace Salon in the south of Austin. 

Austin city officials say they have issued nearly sixty camping citations since the summer, according to KXAN.

‘It comes and goes in waves. Sometimes it gets cleaned up, and it gets a little better,’ North told Fox. ‘This was the third incident we’d had just that week.’

The two women spoke of how the issues have harmed business by scaring away both customers and employees.

‘People were crying, they ran to the break room. We kind of barricaded ourselves inside,’ North told KXAN. ‘There’s men jumping out of the bushes threatening to murder and rape them,’ she said, describing her employees trying to leave work.

Crime in Austin across the board was slightly down in 2022 as compared with 2021, but aggravated assaults and auto theft was up nine and 16 percent respectively, according to statistics from Austin Police Department. Purse snatching also more than doubled, and pick pocketing was up 30 percent.

Legislative changes drove swathes of the city’s homeless population into a number of concentrated camps, one of which is around the corner from Headspace Salon in the south of Austin

Austin city officials say they have issued nearly sixty camping citations since the summer

Purse snatching also more than doubled, and pick pocketing was up 30 percent, according to statistics from the Austin Police Department

Making them feel even less secure is the time it takes police to arrive after they call 911 – usually between 45 minutes and an hour, they say.

‘I couldn’t put a number on the amount of times we’ve had to call them in just the last year,’ North said. ‘It usually takes them anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to arrive when we make multiple phone calls for threatening incidents like this.’

‘You kind of feel helpless knowing that the police are going to take so long to arrive,’ she added. 

The pair have also appealed to city officials, who they claim have been unhelpful and unresponsive. ‘Until we went to the media to show our experience and share what we’re really going through, they haven’t been really responsive.’ 

The women have also ruled out the possibility of moving their operation elsewhere.

‘That would be next to impossible,’ said Mutschler. ‘Anywhere here in Austin is expensive. We’re in a really great area and unfortunately this is plaguing our entire city.’

Austin Police said in a statement that a criminal trespass notice had been issued for the incident and that an investigation was ongoing. 

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk