AUSTIN, Texas — Cleanup is underway after Austin’s Homeless Strategy Office cleared a homeless camp in southeast Austin.
City staff said the encampment presented wildfire risks near SH 71 and Montopolis Drive.
About 30 people who lived there were taken to local shelters.
“Over the last several years there were about 35 calls to the fire department to go out into this encampment,” David Gray– the city’s Homeless Strategy Officer– said. “That’s one of the reasons why we flagged it as a priority.”
Through the Housing-focused Encampment Assistance Link (HEAL) program, Gray says they gather a list of names of people living in the encampments and move them into shelters at once.
People were moved into the Northbridge and Southbridge Shelters.
“The clients we bring in– especially through HEAL– tend to be very excited to come into the shelter,” Gray said. “On top of that, they’re coming in as a community, and we know that when folks are entering with their community, they’re much more likely to succeed.”
Jennifer Duvall said she wished they had city intervention when a different group came and cleared the camp where she was living last year.
After her grandmother passed away and the bank seized their house in 2022, Duvall says she and her mother relocated to East Ben White Boulevard in a different encampment nearby.
“Other people showed up because I was there and it just kind of spread like wildfire,” Duvall said.
Last year, Duvall says the owners of the property they were on came in with bulldozers and destroyed everything.
“They, like, bulldozed everything. My mom’s camper just flattened it right there,” Duvall said.
Duvall was able to qualify for housing, but not everyone was as fortunate.
Scattered by the displacement, she says people were forced to move to nearby encampments and start over again with nothing in their possession.
Duvall says she wishes the city’s homeless strategy office had helped the people in the camp she was in.
“They should at least be there to hold their hands as it’s getting done to make sure everything goes down right,” Duvall said.
Gray says his office is working with the Austin Police Department to keep the area clear of people who may want to return to the area and to prevent future encampments.
Gray says people who may have missed the opportunity to receive help can contact the Sunrise Navigation Center, and can be placed on a waitlist for their 8th Street shelters, adding that their crews are working to clear other encampments every day and to help move people towards permanent housing.