Proposals to fight homelessness
Austin’s mayor highlights a pair of City Council proposals that he says will fight homelessness. Mayor Steve Adler says this Thursday the city will likely spend more than $16 million on a pair of hotels to further house the homeless. However, Adler notes more short term solutions are also needed.
“We need to spend even more attention on emergency and rapid rehousing so that we can do a better job of managing the spaces in the city that should be shared,” says Adler.
He’s hinting at the ongoing work of the proposed HEAL initiative, which would focus on housing folks in certain designated parts of the city that, under the same proposal, would also ban camping in those spaces.
The City Council does appear to be slowly reversing course on many of the controversial homeless policies. Council Member Alison Alter says the way the city has allowed camping to grow has not benefited anyone.
“The goal is to get people to housing, but where people and how people are camping right now does not seem particularly humane,” says Alter.
She is advocating for temporary housing for the homeless who were removed from campsites deemed to be dangerous under that council proposal. Four still to be determined locations will soon be deemed off limits for camping.
COVID-19 update
The number of COVID cases said to be active in Travis County have been steadily falling in recent days and the past 24 hours have been no different. 5,401 active cases. That’s more than 240 less than a day ago. 157 people are in the ICU today, and that’s fallen by 10. Overall, 65,507 cases were found, resulting in 59,475 recoveries.
Williamson County has seen a healthy decline in active COVID cases over the past day. That number is down by more than 400 to 1,626 this morning. Available hospital bed spaces have climbed up to 19%. 29,742 cases confirmed, with 27,833 recoveries.
Austin Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is confident in her decision to welcome kids back to campus this week. She says she’s been in regular contact with Austin Public Health and has based her decision on that data.
“COVID cases in our community and our greater community have decreased for five consecutive days. Hospitalizations have decreased for six consecutive days.”
In the first two weeks following winter break, only 7% of students were attending in person class. That has risen 18% this week.
Antibody infusion center
Austin’s mobile antibody infusion center has been in operation for a few weeks now, and this week it’s been expanded through help from the Texas Division of Emergency Management. When first opened, the infusion center had only nine chairs. But that expansion adds 24 more chairs, along with more staff and supplies. Almost 300 patients have made use of the treatment so far.
Registration for vaccinations in Hays County will be available to the public at the end of this week. The county’s online portal went live last week and was only up for about a half an hour before all slots were filled. Officials say registration begins again at noon on Friday. Hays County is getting 2,150 new doses this week.
Votes on new emergency services district
The Pflugerville Professional Firefighters Association is calling on city leaders to allow people to vote on creating another emergency services district, which would encompass northeastern Travis County. Trevor Stokes, with the union, says the additional ESD is needed to fully fund ambulances already in use.
“We have five ambulances now, and on a regular basis all five of those units are committed, so the growth is occurring. But we can’t continue to fund the EMS mission out of the fire budget,” says Stokes.
They are holding a rally this evening at 6:30 p.m. across from the Pflugerville Central Fire Station.
Abortion rights advocates
The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor this week of Texas abortion rights advocates. The court overturned an appeals court decision allowing abortions to be banned under Governor Abbott’s COVID executive order. A group of abortion providers sued Governor Abbott, saying his executive order banning abortion did nothing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights argued the case.
“He’s abusing these emergency powers to violate the constitutional rights of the women of Texas,” says CEO Nancy Northup.
The Fifth Circuit Court sided with Abbott, but before the case could be appealed to the Supreme Court, Abbott amended his order allowing four abortions. The Supreme Court Monday overturned that Fifth Circuit decision.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-1-26-21
