Austin homeless shelter closure is latest setback for city

AUSTIN, Texas — The Metropolis of Austin is scrambling to repair the newest in a protracted line of setbacks in housing the homeless.

Proper now, employees are working to verify residents on the Salvation Military’s downtown shelter don’t find yourself on the streets. The partially city-funded shelter was set to shut March 15, however the mayor has vowed to maintain the doorways open.

Austin continues to battle of their homeless restoration efforts in comparison with the remainder of the state, and the nation.

Whereas HUD experiences homelessness has gone down statewide, Austin/Travis County has the best variety of unsheltered homeless households and the fifth highest share of unaccompanied youth who’re homeless and unsheltered within the nation.

The Downtown Salvation Military shelter has about 250 beds out of roughly 1,000 obtainable in Austin, which has greater than 4,000 unsheltered homeless folks, metropolis information reveals.

Exterior the Salvation Military Downtown Shelter, neighbors helped transfer belonging-stuffed trash baggage for many who have discovered one other place to remain.

Tuyet Sang Vo is just not a type of folks. She got here to Austin about six months in the past to discover a house. What she discovered was a metropolis with a large scarcity of shelters and inexpensive housing.

“Nowhere was obtainable, so few days later I got here again, and thank God that they had a mattress obtainable for me,” Vo stated.

Vo is one in every of 100 unhoused people who lived on the shelter when the information of it closing was posted on the Salvation Military’s web site a few month in the past. 

”I wouldn’t have ended up right here if I had different locations to be,” she stated.

Residents inform Spectrum Information 1 the one the choice they got for the reason that announcement is to relocate to the Salvation Military shelter in Dallas.

“Single girls like myself are getting the quick finish of the stick, as a result of there’s nowhere for us to go,” stated Katie Reale, a shelter resident for 2 months.

“It was such a slap within the face. I don’t perceive how one can simply transfer us out in a month!” stated Carolyn Williams, who’s been on the shelter for a month.

On the newest Austin Public Well being Committee assembly, Mayor Kirk Watson and council members known as out the Salvation Military for “mishandling” the state of affairs.

“This is likely one of the vital issues that I feel was created by such a fast closure of the ability” Mayor Watson stated.

Days later, the town introduced it’ll pay to maintain the downtown shelter open for 30 days and is at the moment working to relocate the roughly 50 remaining residents.

Salvation Military Austin Space Commander Main Lewis Reckline refused to speak with Spectrum Information. He informed the committee they’ll’t afford to maintenance the getting older downtown shelter, which prices $100,000 a month to function.  

“We have been at a degree the place we needed to make a crucial choice,” he stated.

When council members requested about monetary points, Rickline informed committee members the Salvation Military Downtown Shelter has an annual web lack of round $3 million. Monetary experiences on-line present the Salvation Military had a price range surplus of greater than $1 million in 2021.

The Salvation Military additionally has a 12-month contract with the town for greater than a $250,000 as a part of the town’s efforts to cut back homelessness.

Regardless of the town dedicating tens of millions to implement a homeless technique division, information reveals Austin/Travis County’s unhoused inhabitants has gone up, particularly the variety of unsheltered homeless.

Homeless advocate Paulette Soltani with the Texas Hurt Discount Alliance says that is due to fast inhabitants development, a scarcity of inexpensive housing and emergency shelters.

“It’s negligence. We’d like oversight over Salvation Military and suppliers like Salvation Military” Soltani stated.

For now, residents together with Vo are respiration a short lived sigh of aid.

“I do know that the disaster is frightening, however lack of humanity is scarier,” she stated.

The way forward for the downtown shelter, nonetheless, continues to be unsure. The mayor says he’s within the metropolis shopping for the property from Salvation Military and protecting it as a shelter, if the Salvation Military agrees.

Property information present the downtown shelter is value $10.6 million. Housing specialists inform Spectrum Information it’s value tens of millions greater than that.