Watson Wire: "Love Lives Here"

The bright and colorful message emblazoned on a wall at the Esperanza Community, a non-congregate homeless shelter complex built and operated by The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF), sings a message of hope and joy. At Esperanza, TOOF offers holistic services including onsite work opportunities, case management, housing navigation and other support for our unhoused neighbors.

And TOOF will soon be able to show the love to even more folks thanks to a big investment from the State of Texas.

Even before I was elected mayor, I was talking with the Governor’s Office and local community partners about addressing the City’s homelessness crisis by increasing shelter capacity in Austin. Those efforts accelerated when I got into City Hall and they led to today, when the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) awarded almost $65 million to Austin community groups addressing homelessness. About $60 million has been earmarked to support the planning for and expansion of the non-congregate shelter model in Austin with a City goal of establishing an estimated 700 additional bed capacity.

Also included in that total is $5 million for Caritas of Austin and LifeWorks for?housing stabilization, such as emergency rental assistance.

Susan McDowell, CEO of LifeWorks, said the award will go a long way in supporting efforts to address youth homelessness, providing life-changing services like housing, counseling, and workforce training.

“Through this collaborative partnership with the city and state, we continue to champion the belief that every young person in our community deserves a safe and secure path in pursuit of a life they are going to love,” McDowell said.

Building Stability Through Shelter

Our unhoused population has increased significantly in recent years, but on any given night, there’s only 1 shelter bed for every 5 persons experiencing homelessness. According to an?analysis from the City’s Homeless Services Division, we need about 1,000 additional shelter beds.

That means we are far short of what we need to help folks living on our streets, under highway overpasses and in our parks. Remember, they’re out there right now in heat as high as 107 degrees and, based on our conversations with some folks living in the encampments, many of them would like somewhere to get some relief.

Let me be clear, connecting people experiencing homelessness with services while in our shelters is vital in helping them to get healthier, to feel safer, to find relief from the elements, to receive job training, and to resolve their housing.

I believe strongly that we must create a continuum of support so that we can help our unhoused neighbors who need a place to be while we continue to build a pipeline of permanent supportive housing and address affordability issues in Austin. It can’t be all or nothing.

?But Austin’s approach to addressing the needs of those living homeless has become too politically charged. As we too often do, we’ve made the discussion an argument and some see only a portion of the solution as the be-all end-all of the solution. They so favor the creation of permanent supportive housing that they’ve rejected more immediate needs that could change lives — such as appropriate shelters.

Additionally, Austin voters said loud and clear in 2021 that they want the camping ban enforced, and the State passed legislation saying that there must be enforcement of the camping ban. That really can’t be meaningfully and humanely done without more shelter space.

The creation of more permanent supportive housing remains an important long-term goal, but progress is incremental and slow. While we work toward that goal, our unhoused neighbors need shelter now, and we need to follow the law regarding camping. Securing the state investment complements recent city investments at the Marshalling Yard and what used to be the Salvation Army as well as two bridge shelters that are part of the?City’s HEAL initiative.

Chris Baker, Founder and Executive Director of TOOF, emphasized the need to increase access to dignified and low-barrier shelter in addition to supportive and deeply affordable permanent housing options.?

“We are grateful to Mayor Watson and the State for working together to bring much needed funding into our community’s homeless response system to accomplish both,” Baker said. “The most important thing is that these new resources are stewarded by our community and used in response to what our community needs. That’s why all of TOOF's programming is designed in partnership with a variety of community stakeholders. Most importantly, those who are unhoused.”

I’m deeply appreciative of the Governor’s staff and those at TDHCA that worked with me the past several months and who helped to make this huge investment a reality. We are demonstrating how we can partner to serve our shared constituents.