The Central Health Board of Managers voted March 28 to approve setting aside $400,000 to support a supportive housing initiative from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO.

The goal of the program is to provide a support system by housing homeless people and connecting them to resources as well as to avoid homeless residents making unnecessary emergency room visits, which burdens Austin’s law enforcement and emergency services, ECHO’s Executive Director Ann Howard said at a Central Health budget and finance meeting on March 22.

ECHO's initiative has a “pay-for-success” funding structure, meaning private investors would cover costs associated with establishing the housing program and governmental entities such as Central Health would agree to repay the investors only if the program is successful. For this program, Central Health would agree to set aside $400,000 and only pay it to investors once ECHO could prove the initiative had improved certain metrics such as reducing emergency rooms visits in Travis County.

The exact metrics used to measure the success of the program are not determined yet and would be negotiated between Central Health, ECHO and other governmental agencies. Central Health CEO Mike Geeslin said he wanted to learn more from ECHO about the intentions of investors in the program.

Board member Maram Museitif said that although she sympathizes with Austin’s homeless population, she felt concerned that the project’s efforts stray too far from Central Health’s core mission of providing health care to populations in need. She said she is concerned it would limit funds in the future that could be directed toward projects tied to health outcomes. Museitif also said she could not support a social program without more thorough collaboration between other governmental entities in Travis County.

"Although it is a no-brainer to support homelessness initiatives, given the current circumstances, the financial strains and obligations, I cannot support any social service funding without having a collaborative strategy with our city, county officials and partners," Museitif said.

Board member Cynthia Valdez said she felt similarly concerned that an investment in this type of program could weaken Central Health's abilities to fund more health care-specific programs.

"Anything outside of direct services is not something that I can support right now, especially given the fact that we have a lot of financial needs," Valdez said.

Note: this post has been updated for clarity.