Homelessness strategy evolves amid service gaps From the cover
who challenged officials’ choice to direct one-time funding away from supportive housing. “[Supportive housing] won’t just house one person for each unit,” said Matt Mollica, executive director of ECHO. “We’re talking about units that will be here to serve the community for decades to come, and that’s exciting and new and important.” Local efforts for supportive hous- ing are continuing amid a renewed focus on temporary shelters, with initiatives such as Finding Home ATX, the public-private initiative started in 2021 to house thousands of Austinites through 2024. Watson said an immediate demand in the community showed the shift was needed. “That’s the market speaking,” Watson said. “People wanted a place to go.” In this past fiscal year, operations across five city-supported shelters cost more than $26 million. Austin officials estimate it cost more than $34,000 per person per year to maintain fewer than 800 beds, including supportive services, meals and housekeeping. Additionally, one city program has moved more than 600 people from encampments into shelters since 2021 at a cost of about $25,000 per person. Nearly $5 million is set aside for general encampment cleanups over the coming year. Beyond those efforts, many
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Summing up services
be coming. “If I didn’t think the money that we were putting into it was the right amount of money, I wouldn’t have been in favor of doing it,” Watson said. “But I want to make sure that it’s being done the right way, and I think that it would be appropriate for us to take a step back and review.” The city’s current budget priori- tizes temporary shelters after several years of focusing on supportive housing. Between local and one-off federal funds, Austin will spend about $80 million addressing homelessness this year, up from $73 million the prior year. The money will fund smaller-scale mental health and client support programs as well as higher-cost temporary shelters and permanent supportive housing. Permanent supportive housing offers employment, behavioral health and other services; an expen- sive and long process. Temporary shelters, such as the Marshalling Yard, a city warehouse, welcomed hundreds of clients soon after coun- cil authorized its $9 million con- version into a shelter this summer, focused on providing an immediate place for people to go. What’s happening? The budget priorities drew a mixed response from some com- munity members and advocates
Austin reserves tens of millions of dollars for housing and other homelessness services out of its annual budgets, including this year’s $4.5 billion overall spending plan.
$81M
Preventing homelessness Crisis response Housing Managing public spaces Supportive services
$74.7M
$80M $40M $60M $20M $0
$72.5M $72.6M
FY 23-24 (budgeted)
FY 22-23 (estimated)
FY 21-22 (estimated)
FY 20-21
Did you know?
Unsheltered Sheltered
Aug. 2021 Aug. 2022 Aug. 2023
2,321
591
The number of people accessing local services shows Austin’s homeless population is growing. However, analysts said numbers have also risen in part thanks to improved data tracking.
3,235
969
981
5,216
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000
Annual counts offer a snapshot of a region’s homeless population on a given night—but they don’t provide a comprehensive view of everyone seeking local services.
Austin/Travis County: 2,374* population: 1.27M**
Greater Houston/Fort Bend, Harris and Montgomery counties: 3,270* population: 6.35M**
San Antonio/ Bexar County: 3,155* population: 2.06M**
*COUNTS CONDUCTED IN JANUARY 2023 **2021 AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY FIVE-YEAR ESTIMATES SOURCES: COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS, ENDING COMMUNITY HOMELESSNESS COALITION, SOUTH ALAMO REGIONAL ALLIANCE FOR THE HOMELESS, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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