(Credit: KLBJ staff)
The Austin City Council will meet again for the first time next week since going on summer vacation back in June. Among the 138-item agenda are several relating specifically to homelessness, which is an issue that has been left to fester in the wake of the council’s decision to relax homeless ordinances right before heading off for summer break.
On August 8, City Manager Spencer Cronk will present his proposed budget to city council, including some new recommendations on what the city’s next steps should be to address the rapidly growing issue of homelessness. One idea that now appears to be gaining steam among council members involves spending even more tax money on housing by getting private-sector landlords involved. In a recent interview with KXAN, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he is very interested in finding a way to pay for the deposits, rents, and other incidentals that would allow homeless people to be housed in vacant apartment complex units.
“There are landlords willing to bring in a lot of folks to apartment complexes if we can put somebody on-site to help with support services,” said Adler.
It’s a solution that would not come cheap, and would only add to the more than $30-million already budgeted annually by the city council for homeless services. According to numbers crunched by Front Steps, the organization in charge of running the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, it would cost $8000-10,000 per person, per year, or, more than $2-million just to get 250 people off of the street.
It’s an expense Front Steps executive director Greg McCormack told KXAN he feels would be well worth it.
“The overall goal is that we work with more individuals over the course of a year by helping people get into housing sooner, than just staying at the shelter,” said McCormack.
The city council will vote on its finalized budget in September.
