The City of Austin is adding another group to the ongoing effort aimed at preventing homelessness. The city is launching a Homeless Encampment Management Team, which is a multi-departmental group that will coordinate management of public camps occupied by the homeless. The team will consist of representatives from the homeless strategy division, Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department, Watershed Protection Department, and Parks and Recreation Department.
As part of the City of Austin’s $5 billion budget, $84 million is being set aside for homeless-related issues. Of that, $5 million will be put directly toward cleaning homeless camps.
According to city officials, the new management team will work to prioritize high-risk camps to make sure resources are deployed to area that present the most risk to health and safety.
“The launch of a formalized cross-departmental Homeless Encampment Management Team and prioritization tool will help the City of Austin ensure that its resources are efficiently and equitably deployed. At the same time, the structure will enhance our ability to track conditions in encampments, as well as related public space management activities,” said Dianna Grey Homeless Strategy Officer.
In 2019, the Texas Department of Transportation stopped cleaning homeless camps at Austin’s underpasses, which forced the city to instead clean up those rights-of-way. Since then, the Public Works Department has visitied more than 1800 site and has collected more than 1400 tons of trash and debris.
