Austin’s Mayor Steve Adler and Councilmembers Kathie Tovo, Ann Kitchen and Greg Casar spoke about how they’re moving forward with the homelessness crisis at the Downtown Austin Alliance Town Hall meeting Wednesday morning.
Councilmember Kathie Tovo said a 90 day plan is getting underway, “Some of it looks alot like what we’ve been working toward the last couple of years. The Mayor talked about how as a community we’ve effectively ended veteran homelessness and how we are well on our way to ending youth homelessness.”
Tovo said Council will prioritize supporting the new Salvation Army Rathgeber Family Shelter which does not have the money to open fully now, and that a redesign of the ARCH Shelter downtown is already underway which will help those sheltered there find permanent housing.
During the question and answer period several residents were worried that Council’s efforts to address homelessness mirror the same moves of Los Angeles and Seattle, Adler denied the notion. “It is an urban myth…we were on the path that Los Angeles and Seattle were on by moving people around and not focusing on housing.”
City Councilmember Greg Casar also took the time to address claims that if the council does put more funding into solving homelessness, it will only attract more homeless. Casar said that nine out of ten homeless people in Austin are from Austin, and that homeless people are flocking here from elsewhere is an urban myth. “and if we continue to ignoring the problem, because 10{fbcf2a5c42fe71624047a18c73673849799bd5d53cdb5d8ca16f4833367ca63d} of folks or 12{fbcf2a5c42fe71624047a18c73673849799bd5d53cdb5d8ca16f4833367ca63d} of folks might be folks that aren’t from Austin, then… that doesn’t solve anybody’s problem.” Casar says 20 years of anti homeless ordinances has not solved the homeless crisis.
(Photo:Newsradio KLBJ 590am/99.7fm/Jon Cooley)
