Austin, TX

ECHO's $350M plan offers to 'effectively end' homelessness in Austin – Austin Monitor

Published

1 year ago

November 8, 2024

ECHO's 0M plan offers to 'effectively end' homelessness in Austin – Austin Monitor

Friday, November 8, 2024 by Chad Swiatecki

The city is projected to need $35 million annually over a 10-year period to effectively end homelessness via a plan that emphasizes adding hundreds of permanent supportive housing units while also addressing emergency shelter and prevention steps to keep people from losing their homes.

City Council’s Public Health Committee met on Wednesday and received a presentation from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) on the recently completed modeling and forecasting of the city’s homelessness trends. The 10-year plan is seen as a way to move the city’s high numbers of chronically homeless individuals back into stable housing while efficiently providing aid to stop at-risk residents and families from losing their homes.

The report focuses on expanding housing capacity across emergency shelters, rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing, with total costs expected to reach around $24.4 million for 550 emergency shelter units, $104.5 million for 2,355 rapid rehousing units and $217.4 million for 4,175 permanent supportive units. The plan proposes an annual, staged investment schedule that anticipates shifts in available funding, such as the expiration of specific federal support from the American Rescue Plan that the city has relied on in recent years.

Kate Moore, vice president of ECHO’s homelessness response system strategy, said the number of chronically homeless people – from 25 percent to 30 percent of those who are in the agency’s management system – is larger than peer cities and other major cities in Texas. Moore said part of that anomaly comes from the city not adding permanent supporting housing units commensurate with its sharp population growth.

“We’re already seeing an increase in people moving into (new) permanent supportive housing. This will help us address this but we need to keep our eye on this number,” she said. “Despite this large growth in the (Homeless Response) System, we are still playing catch-up. Austin’s inventory of shelter and housing remains the lowest among big cities in Texas and among the lowest among our peer cities.”

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said she supported the plan, calling the total $350 million cost “a manageable number that we can make if we make the necessary strategic policy proposals.”

The recommended policy steps focus on an “inverted funnel” approach, in which more emphasis is placed on long-term housing and support rather than on simply expanding short-term shelter options. That strategy is intended to reduce the chronic, cyclical nature of homelessness by ensuring that more individuals transition to stable housing rather than relying on temporary solutions.

David Gray, the city’s homeless strategy officer, said his office is looking at what methods other major cities use to fund their homelessness response needs, with corporate giving and philanthropy added to all available sources of public funding.

The city’s next bond package in 2025 or 2026 is expected to include a substantial request for funding for housing and resources related to housing for those experiencing homelessness. Council Member Ryan Alter said the city also has to find approximately $50 million over the next two years to replace the Marshalling Yard emergency shelter and provide the money needed for rapid rehousing services.

With permanent supportive housing projects typically taking four-plus years to develop, Alter said the city needs to start finding ways to continue adding more permanent supportive housing units beyond those that were paid for in part with federal dollars.

“If we came here today with $100 million, $200 million, pick your number … we would have to start that process today to start meeting the need of 2028 and 2029 if we were acting quickly. These projects just take forever,” he said.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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Austin, TX

Texas Primary: Breakdown of Texas races

Published

6 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Democrats tried to stop a mid-decade redistricting effort, but were unsuccessful. Now, we are starting to see some of the candidates emerging in those newly drawn districts. FOX 7 Austin’s Rudy Koski gives a full breakdown.

Posted March 3, 2026 10:32pm CST

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Austin, TX

Remembering Jorge Pederson: Minnesota MMA fighter killed in Austin, Texas, shooting

Published

18 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Remembering Jorge Pederson: Minnesota MMA fighter killed in Austin, Texas, shooting

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – A shooting on West Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, early Sunday morning, killed three people and injured more than a dozen others, according to the Austin Police Department. APD confirmed one of the victims was 30-year-old Jorge Pederson, a Minnesota man who worked as an MMA fighter for the Med City Fighting Championships.

“You meet tons of fighters and there are people that stand above the rest that you find you enjoy or find the most amusing,” MCFC Co-Owner Matthew Vogt said. “He was definitely one of them.”

According to Vogt, Pederson was also the owner of a Minnesota business called Metro Movers. Vogt said the MMA competitor touched everyone’s hearts since his first day of fighting professionally in Rochester.

“As soon as we met him when it was the weighing time, we just loved the guy already because he had a great mission or spirit about him,” Vogt said. “He was a funny guy and great fighter.”

Vogt told KTTC when he first saw the news that Pederson was killed, he could not believe what he saw.

“I was looking, like, ‘Wait a minute. Is this one of his shenanigans or did something actually happen there?’” Vogt said, recalling the moment he saw a social media post regarding the shooting in Austin. “I confirmed with a few people and I’m just like, sometimes, some things happen that you don’t even like, you don’t even know how to respond to it because it’s just so out of left field that you don’t immediately have a response to it.”

MCFC confirmed there is an online fundraiser dedicated to supporting Pederson’s family. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than $10,000 has been raised.

“He was someone that always could make anybody laugh,” Vogt said. “Support his family through the fundraiser and take a look at his Instagram especially to see how funny he was.”

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Austin, TX

Here are the major statewide and Austin-area races on the ballot Tuesday

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Here are the major statewide and Austin-area races on the ballot Tuesday

A voter heads into the Ben Hur Shrine polling place in Austin as early voting begins for the March primary elections in Texas, Feb. 17, 2026. Voters can cast their ballots to decide who represents Republicans and Democrats in the November midterm elections.

Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman

A rare mix of competitive races up and down the ballot has voters turning up to the polls in droves ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, which will set match-ups in the high-stakes midterms in November.

Voters will decide if U.S. Sen. John Cornyn gets to keep the seat he’s held for more than two decades and which candidates will likely take a slew of redrawn congressional seats meant to give Republicans an edge. The races could decide control of Congress.