AUSTIN—A UT sophomore is calling on city leaders to consider making changes that will force homeless people away from the area west of the University of  Texas campus.

According to some University of Texas students, it’s not easy getting to and from class, especially near the west campus area.

“You get confronted by sketchy looking people late at night. Some of them look like they’re high on drugs,” said sophomore Diego Singleton.

The confrontations prompted sophomore Tanner Golden to create a petition six months ago which calls on city leaders to consider changes that will force homeless people out of the area.

A few weeks ago, he only had a handful of supporters.

“It didn’t have any more signatures until Haruka’s death. Then it was actually a friend of a friend who texted me and said hey you need to check out your petition—it’s blowing up,” said Golden.

In the days following Haruka Weiser’s death, the petition gathered 1,500 signatures from across the country. The petition says food trucks should stop giving free meals to the homeless on campus.

“I don’t believe it’s good to feed them here and draw more people in and having them around the students,” said Golden.

On top of that, Golden is calling on University and city leaders to address mental illness.

“I want to have better mental health programs opened up. I believe that is one of the main causes of the homeless problems here,” said Golden.

Since the petition picked up steam, a flow of critics have personally attacked him. Golden says a group has been posting fliers around campus with his personal information. He notified police about those fliers early Thursday morning.

Golden says critics misunderstand his motive, adding that he holds no prejudice.

“Believe it or not, the only cousin that I’ve ever been close with died during Occupy Denton, he was homeless. He had a hard life growing up. So is my grandpa that I’ve never met. It’s not that I don’t like homeless people, it’s that I want to keep UT students safe,” he said.

Golden plans to deliver the petition to city leaders by the end of the month.