Austin’s new Homelessness Czar is focusing on finding solutions to the city’s homeless crisis, rather than debating council’s proposed camping restrictions.
Homeless Strategy Officer Lori Pampilo Harris explained there are three things necessary to make a difference in homelessness. First is a creating an affordable housing pipeline for every income level and every zipcode. The next is having a really strong lead agency, “and that here is ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness), and having the providers that work with ECHO, work together so that they can have a system wide response around homelessness.” And the third is keeping the response system, nimble as the road to a solution is long and complex.
Pampilo Harris said, Austin is willing to innovate and try new things. Looking at a recently finished pilot program called Pop Up Navigation Center, that helped direct people in need to a variety of services, be it getting government documents, finding a shower all the way to getting help dealing with drug addiction. She was encouraged by the work also for who was involved, “What I liked most, was that there was peer support specialists that were there… I mean , its just that they’re people who were formally homeless that were also there to provide services and support to those who were facing homelessness.”
She said those are important factors for a strong crisis response system, and she hoping to look into the data of that program to see if it could find a permanent home in Austin.
(Photo:Newsradio KLBJ 590AM/99.7FM/ Jon Cooley)
