AUSTIN (KXAN) — After the Salvation Army introduced it was completely closing its homeless shelter downtown, which devoted beds to girls and youngsters, the City of Austin is working to lease the area from the nonprofit and make the beds obtainable once more.
This week, Austin City Council will vote on a one-year settlement with the Salvation Army to lease the area beginning July 1. It would value the town roughly $1.2 million, a big chunk of which is able to come from the Austin Public Health finances, in line with council paperwork.
Another decision could increase the town’s contract with Urban Alchemy, the group that runs the ARCH shelter close by, to incorporate working and offering social providers on the Salvation Army shelter.
The presently empty shelter sits in District 9 close to the Austin Police headquarters in Council Member Zohaib Qadri’s district.
“The city needs more shelter capacity. We have about 4,000-5,000 unhoused folks in this city. We truthfully don’t have enough space currently for all those bodies,” Qadri mentioned.
Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) knowledge launched final month confirmed though the quantity of individuals experiencing homelessness within the downtown district goes down — largely on account of Austin’s passing of its tenting ban — it nonetheless had the best quantity of individuals experiencing homelessness reported in the course of the HUD-required Point in Time (PIT) depend.
The shelter’s reopening is one thing the Downtown Austin Alliance mentioned is way wanted within the space. The group mentioned it hopes Urban Alchemy is ready to make the shelter as secure inside and out of doors as they’ve with ARCH.
“And that takes more than just the operator. That takes city support, police support to ensure that the area remains safe. It takes other efforts to make sure that the area remains clean,” Bill Brice mentioned, praising Urban Alchemy for its work with ARCH.
The metropolis mentioned contract negotiations will decide who will likely be allowed to remain on the shelter. The shelter beforehand housed a major quantity of girls and youngsters, one thing Felicia, a girl we met outdoors of the shelter, mentioned is way wanted downtown.
Felicia informed KXAN she is a sufferer of human trafficking and she or he’s presently sleeping on sidewalks downtown.
“They need to do more for women. They’re not doing enough,” she mentioned.
