Austin Downtown Commission wants city to open three new homeless shelters by 2020
The Austin Downtown Commission wants the city to push harder to create homeless shelters outside of downtown, asking City Council to create three satellite facilities by September 2020.
The directive came as part of a recommendation passed unanimously at last week’s Downtown Commission meeting.
The resolution asks Council to enforce a late-May deadline for City Manager Spencer Cronk to report back on a plan to open a new shelter this fall, with two more coming online one year later. It also calls for creating a database of area services for the homeless by this November, and making the newly created director of homeless strategy a direct report to Cronk’s office.
The resolution came after a presentation on the evolving state of homelessness in Austin given by Bill Brice, vice president of operations for the Downtown Austin Alliance, and Austin Police Department Assistant Chief Justin Newsom.
Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2019/05/downtown-commission-wants-city-to-open-three-new-homeless-shelters-by-2020/
