(Credit: Florida Housing Coalition)
Following months of speculation, the City of Austin has announced that Lori Pampilo Harris has been selected as the new Homeless Strategy Officer. She will assume her new role effective September 9, 2019.
Harris was an advisor and consultant to the public and private sectors, mapping out and implementing solutions of complex policy and social issues, the city says. Most recently, Harris served as Senior Advisor on Homelessness and Social Services to Honorable Mayor Buddy Dyer of the City of Orlando. Lori had the unique and ambitious goal of implementing “Housing First” and supported the successful end to chronic veterans’ homelessness and reducing homelessness by 23.6{fbcf2a5c42fe71624047a18c73673849799bd5d53cdb5d8ca16f4833367ca63d} in a single year.
Prior to her appointment with the City of Orlando, Harris spent nearly 14 years with Habitat for Humanity International in various leadership capacities with expertise in disaster recovery and response, affordable housing, emergency shelter solutions, resource development, and advocacy. This included four years in Haiti, after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
The issue of homelessness has been identified as the Austin City Council’s top priority in the City of Austin’s Strategic Direction 2023 Plan.
“I am honored to serve the City of Austin, with homelessness being its top priority. Creating a comprehensive plan in which the public, private, philanthropic and local homeless providers are working together to achieve transformational results is critical,” Harris said. “The City of Austin is willing to take a fresh look, with hopeful eyes, at one of our most intractable issues – homelessness. We want the discussions and strategy to be about ending homelessness for our most vulnerable community members, not just coping with homelessness,” Harris shared.
Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales led the recruitment for Austin’s first Homeless Strategy Officer. “I look forward to working with Lori on homelessness initiatives and programs that will help reach the City’s goals that focus on the importance of assisting those in Austin experiencing homelessness,” Gonzales stated.
Harris replaces Veronica Briseño who has served Interim HSO since March 2019. Briseño accepted and transitioned into her new role as Director of the Economic Development Department (EDD) in late June of 2019. After her transition to EDD, she remained the Interim HSO until a new Homeless Strategy Officer could be hired.
