AUSTIN, Texas — The city of Austin says 28 people have been relocated from encampments to shelters as part of an initiative to help unhoused residents move to safer locations.
The city’s Homeless Strategy Office worked with several departments to relocate people from an encampment near Wickersham Lane and East Riverside Drive. That area sits in a high-risk flood zone along Country Club Creek.
Twenty-one people moved into the city’s Northbridge and Southbridge shelters, while seven others found space at the Marshalling Yard Emergency Shelter.
This relocation is part of the City’s Housing-focused Encampment Assistance Link initiative, also known as HEAL.
Austin Resource Recovery will now work to clean up the encampment around the creek.
“The closure of this encampment provides our community’s unhoused residents with a pathway to stable shelter, and we remain committed to compassionate solutions,” said David Gray, homeless strategy officer.
The HEAL Initiative was approved by the city council in February 2021. Since it began in June 2021, the city said more than 988 people have been moved from high-risk encampments to the Northbridge and Southbridge shelters.
The city said the cleanups were a collaborative effort that involved the Homeless Strategy Office’s outreach team working alongside the Austin Watershed Protection Department, Austin Police Department, the Austin Area Urban League, Endeavors and other community partners.