Ronald McDonald House opens at Texas Children's Hospital, providing overnight stays for families

A new facility at Texas Children’s Hospital will offer free overnight stays, allowing families to be closer to their children undergoing medical treatment.

Texas Children’s in Northwest Austin celebrated the opening of a Ronald McDonald House at the hospital with a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 30. The nonprofit opened its first in-hospital home in Central Texas to alleviate a growing waitlist of families seeking support, Ronald McDonald’s House staff said.

“Our families are going to be just steps away from their child's care,” said Arden Whitley, senior development director for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas. “It's going to allow them the proximity that if they need to make a middle-of-the-night medical decision for their child, they're right here. They're close to their child's bedside.”

The overview

Ronald McDonald House provides free housing, food and transportation services for families while their ill or injured child receives care in Central Texas. The organization has one facility for families near Dell Children’s Medical Center, along with individual family rooms at several Austin hospitals.

“All of our programs are designed to keep families close to the care that their children need to heal and recover,” Whitley said.

The new Texas Children’s Ronald McDonald House is the Central Texas chapter's second house and first facility located inside a hospital, Whitley said.

The house features nine bedrooms for up to 36 people, one of which is for transplant patients and their families, alongside a living room, kitchen and laundry facilities. Each bedroom includes a queen-size bed, pullout bed, refrigerator, desk and bathroom.

The facility is available to families of patients at Texas Children’s or any North Austin hospital, Whitley said. Families have stayed at the Ronald McDonald House anywhere from two to 500 nights depending on their child’s needs, she said. Families can also visit the house during the daytime if they're not staying overnight.

“Our goal is when you walk in the door that it doesn't feel like a hospital, that you feel like you're in an oasis outside of the hospital world, but only steps away from your child's care,” Whitley said.

The backstory

The Texas Children’s house will help alleviate Ronald McDonald House’s waitlist, which has been ongoing for the last six years, Ronald McDonald House staff said.

In 2025, the Central Texas chapter served more than 1,200 families, while over 400 families remained on the waitlist, said Kristin Coulter, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas.

The facility will house families who travel across the state, the country and the world to receive pediatric care at Texas Children’s, said Dr. Jeffery Shilt, president of Texas Children’s Austin & Central Texas.

“Families travel long distances to receive specialized care, and this in-hospital house removes one of the greatest stresses they face—finding a place to stay while a child is being treated without worrying about how much it costs to do that,” Austin City Council member Krista Laine said at the March 30 event.

What’s next

Ronald McDonald House will welcome the first three families at Texas Children’s on April 1, Coulter said.

“My prayer for them when they walk through these doors on Wednesday morning is that they feel loved, cared for and they know they're not on this journey alone,” Coulter said. “We're with them.”