On Tuesday, the group ‘Safe Austin for Everyone’ (SAFE) hosted a public forum regarding the City of Austin’s plan to create another homeless shelter in South Austin. With fears over increased crime, safety hazards for children, and health hazards front-and-center last night, Austin mayor Steve Adler and the city council were absent once again, despite being invited more than a month ago.
In July, a similar forum was hosted in downtown Austin, but only council member Kathie Tovo chose to attend that.
Nearly 100 people packed into the Woodlawn Baptist Church for the event this week.
While city council leadership opted to skip the forum, Chief of Police Brian Manley was in attendance along with leadership from the Austin Fire Department. Manley spent much of the night fielding questions from the audience, many of which involved what may come of the neighborhood when the shelter operations are officially underway. Addressing those concernes, Manley assured the community that the new shelter would not fall victim to the same rampant crime and drug use as the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.
“I bet everyone here, the first thing on your mind is the ARCH,” Manley said. “It’s not a drop-in facility.”
The plan, according to Manley, is to prohibit loitering, camping, or even stopping in for a visit to the shelter without a prior appointment.
“You can’t show up and ask to come inside. You actually have to be accepted to this facility,” he said.
Opposition to the shelter continues to grow, and a common theme among residents is a general feeling of frustration over a lack of communication from the city. That issue is apparently not exclusive to residents. When asked how much input the city council sought from APD top brass about the proposed site of that shelter compared to other sites across Austin, Manley said there was virtually none prior to the council’s vote.
City officials say the mayor and council did not attend the Tuesday forum because three city-hosted town halls are already planned for late-August and early September:
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
10:00 – 11:30 AM
Austin Convention Center
500 East Cesar Chavez Street
Ballroom A
Thursday, August 29, 2019
UT Austin – Thompson Conference Center
2405 Robert Dedman Dr.
Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
7:00 PM
Jones Global Events Center
3001 South Congress Avenue
The city council voted in june to spend up to $8.6-million on the new shelter, despite the Travis County Appraisal District valuing the property at only $3.5-million.
