Austin homeless shelter closure is latest setback for city

AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin is scrambling to mend the latest in an extended line of setbacks in housing the homeless.

Right now, team of workers are operating to ensure citizens on the Salvation Army’s downtown shelter don’t finally end up at the streets. The partly city-funded shelter used to be set to near March 15, however the mayor has vowed to stay the doorways open.

Austin continues to combat of their homeless restoration efforts in comparison to the remainder of the state, and the country.

While HUD reports homelessness has long past down statewide, Austin/Travis County has the perfect selection of unsheltered homeless households and the 5th perfect proportion of unaccompanied early life who’re homeless and unsheltered within the country.

The Downtown Salvation Army shelter has about 250 beds out of more or less 1,000 to be had in Austin, which has greater than 4,000 unsheltered homeless other folks, city data presentations.

Outside the Salvation Army Downtown Shelter, neighbors helped transfer belonging-stuffed trash baggage for those that have discovered any other position to stick.

Tuyet Sang Vo is now not a kind of other folks. She got here to Austin about six months in the past to discover a house. What she discovered used to be a city with a large scarcity of shelters and inexpensive housing.

“Nowhere was available, so few days later I came back, and thank God they had a bed available for me,” Vo mentioned.

Vo is one in all 100 unhoused people who lived on the shelter when the news of it ultimate used to be posted at the Salvation Army’s website a few month in the past. 

”I wouldn’t have ended up right here if I had different puts to be,” she mentioned.

Residents inform Spectrum News 1 the one the choice they got for the reason that announcement is to relocate to the Salvation Army shelter in Dallas.

“Single women like myself are getting the short end of the stick, because there’s nowhere for us to go,” mentioned Katie Reale, a shelter resident for two months.

“It was such a slap in the face. I don’t understand how you can just move us out in a month!” mentioned Carolyn Williams, who’s been on the shelter for a month.

At the latest Austin Public Health Committee meeting, Mayor Kirk Watson and council individuals known as out the Salvation Army for “mishandling” the placement.

“This is one of the significant problems that I think was created by such a rapid closure of the facility” Mayor Watson mentioned.

Days later, the city introduced it’s going to pay to stay the downtown shelter open for 30 days and is these days operating to relocate the more or less 50 ultimate citizens.

Salvation Army Austin Area Commander Major Lewis Reckline refused to speak with Spectrum News. He instructed the committee they are able to’t manage to pay for to repairs the getting older downtown shelter, which prices $100,000 a month to perform.  

“We were at a point where we had to make a critical decision,” he mentioned.

When council individuals requested about monetary problems, Rickline instructed committee individuals the Salvation Army Downtown Shelter has an annual internet lack of round $3 million. Financial reviews online display the Salvation Army had the cheap surplus of greater than $1 million in 2021.

The Salvation Army additionally has a 12-month contract with the city for greater than a $250,000 as a part of the city’s efforts to scale back homelessness.

Despite the city dedicating tens of millions to put into effect a homeless technique department, knowledge presentations Austin/Travis County’s unhoused inhabitants has long past up, particularly the selection of unsheltered homeless.

Homeless recommend Paulette Soltani with the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance says this is as a result of fast inhabitants expansion, a loss of inexpensive housing and emergency shelters.

“It is negligence. We need oversight over Salvation Army and providers like Salvation Army” Soltani mentioned.

For now, citizens together with Vo are respiring a short lived sigh of reduction.

“I know that the crisis is scary, but lack of humanity is scarier,” she mentioned.

The long run of the downtown shelter, alternatively, is nonetheless unsure. The mayor says he’s within the city purchasing the valuables from Salvation Army and retaining it as a shelter, if the Salvation Army has the same opinion.

Property data display the downtown shelter is price $10.6 million. Housing mavens inform Spectrum News it’s price tens of millions greater than that.