Austin City Council is spending about $63 million on homelessness in the 2019-2020 budget.
Of that, council set aside about $15.5 million for the creation, maintenance and operations of running supportive housing units. Homeless non-profit Front Steps runs the ARCH in downtown Austin, the group’s Amy Price said those kinds of programs can do a lot of work. “Permanent supportive housing gives us an option to help people who maybe living with disabilities or the impacts of trauma from living on the streets, as they get back on their feet.”
But Price explained many of the programs that draw from the homelessness budget, don’t always go to those on the street, sometimes she noted, it goes to makeing sure those people in need never end up on the street in the first place.
Austin’s Mayor Steve Adler called fighting the homelessness crisis a moral imperative, and as Price goes over the Homelessness budget, she believes the funds and associated programs can make a difference…albeit perhaps not an immediate one. She said those involved in the fight have got to make sure the programs using tax dollars are giving Austinites the best bang for their buck, adding, “If we have the people who are working on this problem convening regularly, working with someone whose single job is to improve the city’s outcomes from expenditures…that has to make a difference.”
But more exciting than the money, Price exclaimed, are the conversations all over the city about homelessness. She hopes some positive action will come from both.
(Photo:Shutterstock/Philip arno phoography)
