Seventy-five people and 30 pets living in a Gaines Creek Greenbelt homeless encampment near the Violet Crown Trail were moved into shelter June 20 through Austin's Housing-focused Encampment Assistance Link, or HEAL, program.
The details
HEAL clears encampments that pose a high public safety risk, such as those near major roads and waterways.
The Gaines Creek Greenbelt encampment was removed due to safety concerns amid record-high temperatures, increased wildfire risks and its proximity to a sensitive endangered migratory songbird habitat, according to a news release.
Staff from the parks and recreation department, Austin Resource Recovery and the Austin Police Department have begun an “extensive'' cleanup operation that will take several weeks, according to a news release. Following the cleanup, the parks and recreation department will install perimeter fencing to deter future encampments, and the Austin Police Department will patrol the area regularly, according to the news release.
Quote of note
“This cleanup came at a critical time. As the peak summer heat approaches, it’s a relief knowing almost 80 formerly unhoused Austinites will not have to endure living in extreme weather conditions. Wildfire risks will also be significantly reduced,” Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis said in a news release.
The context
The Gaines Creek Greenbelt encampment clearing comes as the city works to ramp up on its homeless shelter capacity.
The city doubled the capacity at its Northbridge and Southbridge facilities—the shelters unhoused residents are relocated to through the HEAL program—to accommodate an additional 130 people in May. The city shifted from single- to double-occupancy rooms to provide the additional space.
The city is also in the process of opening a roughly $9 million new shelter at Austin Convention Center's Marshalling Yard just off US 183 and Hwy. 71 that would provide 300 temporary shelter beds for around one year.
By the numbers
HEAL has now cleared over a dozen encampments, relocated 546 people to the city’s bridge shelters and permanently housed 186 people since the program started in June 2021.
Despite the millions of dollars the city has put toward creating shelters to end homelessness, Austin’s shelter capacity only scratches the surface. More than 4,600 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Austin and Travis County as of May 2023 while 803 were sheltered—down from nearly 1,000 as of last September, according to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, a nonprofit that manages regional homeless strategy.
