Watson Wire: Summertime Sleeplessness

Folks frequently ask me what keeps me up at night in my role as mayor. Well, one big thing that I’m worried about this summer is whether we’re doing everything we can for so many unhoused people in Austin who are outside trying to sleep at night and live during the day in this inescapable heat. Even at night, temperatures are often beyond uncomfortable and simply dangerous.

Since I became mayor 18 months ago, I’ve advocated for the City’s overarching strategy to focus on building out the full continuum of homelessness support from emergency shelter through permanent supportive housing. Previously, the City was too single-mindedly focused on just one part of the continuum, and we all know and remember that wasn’t getting us the results we wanted or needed.

It’s important to support every tool in our Homelessness Response System, so we can be successful in helping people exit homelessness, better enforce the camping ban that Austin voters passed, and comply with state law. The City is now doing this through our Homeless Strategy Office that was created late last year.

Immediate Needs

To deal with the immediate needs, we’ve nearly doubled our emergency shelter capacity in the past 18 months with the opening of the Marshalling Yard and the Eighth Street Shelter. Doors opened at the Marshalling Yard late last summer, and it serves up to 300 people. That facility was a critical addition to our system given the heat and the severe wildfire threat, enabling us to move some folks into shelter and out of the encampments where wildfire threatens everyone’s safety.

In addition, the Homeless Strategy Office and our non-profit partner Urban Alchemy have opened a cooling area downtown called The Oasis. Located between the Eighth Street Shelter and the ARCH, The Oasis is a safe place for people to get water, coffee, and snacks, and to engage with Urban Alchemy practitioners to learn where other services are available. More than 200 people have already received services at The Oasis, which is open seven days a week.

We know from our non-profit partners and City staff that there’s a big demand for additional cooling centers, water, and supplies to combat the effects of the heat on our unhoused population. City staff came in over the Memorial Day weekend to open libraries for folks to cool off. That worked as a quick fix, but it came with a financial cost to the City and personal cost to our library staff.

Expect us to announce additional steps for provide cooling facilities soon.

The Whole Continuum

Our challenge, of course, is balancing the short-term and the long-term needs given the expiration of the federal dollars the City invested in homelessness during the pandemic.

We’re on track to add more than 1,000 units of permanent supportive housing – a 630 percent increase – by the end of 2026. One example is Pecan Gardens, a converted motel in North Austin, that includes 78 units managed by Family Eldercare to serve seniors. Back when I was running for mayor, this spot was pretty much a disaster that the City inexplicably left unsecured so vandals stripped it of copper, tore up the place, and property was stolen. Williamson County sued the City over how it was handled. Today, there’s consensus on how it’s being used. I’m proud that Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell supports our new approach and has become a friend.

The federal funds were also key to launching the Marshalling Yard last year. Even though there is still a very long wait list for unhoused neighbors that want shelter, the Marshalling Yard is scheduled to close next spring and the Homeless Strategy Office has yet to find an alternative site. As a result, beginning in September the Marshalling Yard will limit intake to clients with existing housing vouchers. On December 1, the Marshalling Yard will no longer intake any new clients. Given these restrictions, our HEAL initiatives and encampment clean-ups will need to find other shelter space to house our unhoused neighbors.

I’m continuing to work on these issues, including going to Washington, D.C., and advocating for more funding and ways we can better use those housing vouchers.

A happy part of being Mayor is touring our new shelters and housing projects and meeting our neighbors that have a chance to get healthier and safer. I celebrate each one of those people and projects. But I’m also aware of past failures in meeting the needs of our unhoused neighbors. I want us to learn from those mistakes, be creative, and produce results for the whole community. I won’t sleep well until we get it right.