The Austin City Council has indicated its desire to seek out and purchase more motels to be converted into homeless shelters. Last month, the council approved spending $8-million to purchase the Rodeway Inn near I-35 and Oltorf. As the city acquires more of these properties, a recent city memo has laid out the city’s Respectful Neighbor policy in an effort to allay concerns that numerous Austin residents have expressed about shelter proximity to their homes.
According to that memo from Assistant city Manager Rodney Gonzalez, the policy would include regular mandatory cleaning projects, a ban on loitering around a shelter’s perimeter, 24-hour staffing by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO, and 24-hour security details to maintain safety.
The locations are expected to provide numerous support services. ECHO Executive Director Matt Mollica told the city council those services don’t necessarily have to be reserved for the homeless exclusively.
“If we have primary care clinics set up, the expectation is that we’ll have walk-in hours for people that they can come from throughout the community if they don’t have access to those services,” he said. “If we have a food bank set up, the idea is that people can access those services and those resources in the community.”
Mollica said the services offered should help prop up the community as a whole, not just those choosing to live in the shelters.
Similar to many of its other endeavors, the Austin City Council is modeling the new policy after similar policies in California and Oregon.
