The new homeless shelter slated for South Austin and the fears surrounding it, came up during Wednesday night’s Homelessness town hall.
Hoping to calm those fears Councilmember Ann Kitchen, whose district will host the shelter, said the city will bind itself to a legal document dictating the shelters operations, “Sort of like a restrictive covenant, that says if this place operates as a shelter, it will not be drop in services, it will only provide services to people who are staying there. There will be no camping around it, there will be security provisions… etcetera.” Kitchen said council will put it all in writing and make it legally enforceable, all before the shelter opens its doors. She explained this document is needed, so people can trust that the shelter will be operated as a good neighbor.
But should the city or those charged with running the shelter violate the covenant, Kitchen added, “people could take the city to court and say ‘you’re violating this restrictive covenant and you have to fix the problem.’” Kitchen said the council still needs to draft and approve such a document.
