Updated Aug. 31 at 9:45 a.m. The City of Austin is scaling back plans for a mega shelter at the Convention Center after learning that many Harvey evacuees are choosing to stay in and around Houston. Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano said in a news release that the State of Texas no longer anticipates as many evacuees coming into Austin as previously thought. City officials are now working to consolidate the four operating shelters into one shelter at a yet-to-be-determined location that would be scaleable should the number of evacuees in Austin increase. "We stand ready to do anything that the state needs us to do, and anyone who comes to Austin looking for shelter will find it here," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said at a press conference Thursday morning at LBJ High School, one of the shelter locations. "At this point, we're just standing ready," he said. Posted Aug. 29 at 12:37 p.m. This article previously misidentified Dell Seton Medical Center as the site of a medical shelter for Harvey evacuees. It has been updated to fix this error.  At an emergency Austin City Council meeting this morning, Mayor Steve Adler and council members reaffirmed the city’s commitment to helping those displaced by Hurricane Harvey, including undocumented immigrants, and discussed plans to increase the city’s shelter capacity to 7,000 people. “We are not checking immigration status at shelters,” Adler said. “Our priority is your safety, and we want to make you feel at home regardless of where you come from. That is the character of this community and is the kind of hospitality that we’re going to show.” Juan Ortiz, the director of homeland security and emergency management for the city of Austin, updated the council on the city’s shelter operations. As of Tuesday morning, the city is hosting 563 guests at four shelters. The locations are the Burger Center, the Delco Center, LBJ High School and the J.J. Pickle Research Campus at The University of Texas at Austin, which is serving as a medical shelter. Pickle Research can be reached at 512-974-6170 The Federal Emergency Management Agency has identified the need for shelters to hold 30,000 people across the state of Texas. Adler received a request for additional shelter space in Austin—to bring the total capacity to 7,000 people—and the city is working to respond to that need as quickly as possible, Ortiz said. Paul Hopingardner, Austin’s deputy director of communications and technology management, presented the council with the city’s plan for a mega shelter, based in part on firsthand experience of Hurricane Katrina. The Austin Convention Center will likely open in the next 48 hours and can house up to 2,500 evacuees. “It’s a very large operation,” Hopingardner said of the mega shelter. “It’s been described as a city within a city.” Once positions within the mega shelter command structure have been appointed, people will be moved from the four existing shelters to the mega shelter, where they will be registered. Citizenship status is not part of this process. “It looks like chaos, but it’s not,” Hopingardner said of this task. Many people will arrive at the shelter after long journeys and may need food, water or medical attention. The goal is to complete the registration process as quickly as possible so that volunteers can then assess and attend to the guests’ needs. FEMA will also contribute to long-term relocation efforts and help evacuees access financial resources for which they may qualify. Austin residents and those being sheltered here should consult the city's website for the latest information on recovery efforts and resources. Adler directed Austinites to contribute to the American Red Cross, which is coordinating the four shelters open in Austin, and to the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which came at the recommendation of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. For those who wish to host displaced individuals, more information can be found by calling 311. This effort will be managed by local churches, the Austin Disaster Relief Effort and the American Red Cross.