AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, the Austin City Council met for its first meeting of the year, with three new faces on the dais: District 6 Councilmember Krista Lane, who defeated incumbent Mackenzie Kelly; District 7 Councilmember Mike Siegel, who is taking over Leslie Pool’s seat; and District 10 Councilmember Marc Duchen, who is taking over Alison Alter’s seat.
But one thing remained the same: addressing homelessness in Austin remains top of mind for city leaders.
The council approved a resolution that would update Austin’s homelessness response system, aiming to streamline how the city works with its partners and funds its response efforts. The city will use the State of the Homelessness Response System, a 2024 report from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), to find new ways to invest in the system.
According to the report, Austin will need about $350 million over the next 10 years to address homelessness.
“Addressing homelessness in Austin is not something one person, one group, one department, or one county or city bureaucracy can address,” Councilmember José Velásquez (District 3) said.
Since 2021, Austin has doubled its shelter bed capacity and added more than 600 permanent supportive housing units (PSH) and 400 rapid re-housing units. But with a 30% rate of people experiencing chronic homelessness in the city, that’s still not enough.
“Unfortunately, the number of people entering our system outpaces the number of people exiting,” Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said.
From 2028 to 2034, ECHO says the city will have to create at least 570 PSH units each year. During a budget work session last year, the city’s budget office found that Austin would need about $15.4 million to pay for rapid re-housing and emergency shelters.
And with the federal pandemic relief dollars the city used to fund other housing resources disappearing, leaders say now is the time to work out a new funding plan.
“This couldn’t come at a more critical time. We know with our federal relief dollars coming soon to a close, and even with the confusion at the federal level regarding our grant funding,” Fuentes said.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown emphasized that the money is there, it just needs to be allocated correctly. From 2018-2023, Brown said 364 people experiencing homelessness died in a hospital. The cost for their care – including medical services, ER visits and inpatient care – totaled $11.1 million.
“That $11.1 million could have funded 81% of the permanent supportive housing services and rent for that same group of people,” Brown said.
He’s hoping to help with this issue, state lawmakers will step in and try to pass Medicaid expansions in the Legislature this session.
State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt was also at City Hall on Thursday. She pointed out to city leaders that it would be worth looking into all state properties in the city of Austin and Travis County to see which ones they could turn into affordable housing.
For those who’ve experienced the struggles of finding support while experiencing homelessness – like Alfredo Reyes, who lived on the street in Austin for seven years – they’re hoping these leaders’ words turn into action.
“We’re tired of being told there is no money for permanent housing, rapid rehousing, shelters, eviction prevention. We must find the money,” Reyes said.
The resolution approved on Thursday directs the city manager to provide an update on the homelessness response system to city council by April.