The big picture
More than 24,300 people in Austin and Travis County received services in 2023, according to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO—the organization overseeing the local Homelessness Response System. Services range from assistance with housing to overnight shelter stays and or longer-term supportive housing.
“I think it’s really easy to get a little shocked by the numbers, and I think it is important for us to address it to and to plan for how we’re going to handle this sort of increase, and look at the future and what we’re going to need to provide services," said Joseph Montaño, ECHO's director of research and evaluation. "But I think it’s also really important contextually to look at, we just have a lot more programs in the system doing a lot of different things."
The annual total for those accessing services is different, and much higher, than the number of people who are likely currently homeless in the Austin area. ECHO estimated that figure at around 6,200 as of August.
It's also a separate statistic than the federally mandated point-in-time count, or PIT. The in-person citywide count is conducted by volunteers every two years to gauge how many people may be homeless on a given night.
The 2023 PIT resulted in a count of 2,374 people. Adjusted per 10,000 residents, that placed Austin below Dallas, on roughly even footing with Fort Worth, but higher than San Antonio and Houston.
By the numbers
Alongside the overall client base increase, ECHO also reported the number of people seeking homelessness assistance for the first time jumped up in 2023.
Almost a third of last year's more than 24,000 individuals receiving support were new to the system, more than doubling the amount of first-time clients recorded in 2019. Hispanic and Latino clients represented the largest share of that group.
"Because we have more programs, those programs are enrolling more people," Montaño said. "As opposed to it maybe being such a dramatic increase in people who are just experiencing homelessness for the first time, it might also be an indicator that we’re getting a more accurate picture of what our continuum looks like and what the community of people experiencing homelessness looks like.”
ECHO attributed the rising pace of people falling into homelessness to economic factors, including local housing affordability issues and sluggish wage growth.
Austin and Travis County's unhoused population continues to skew male and single, and the share of those with a disabling condition—anything from a physical disability to substance use disorder—remained high at about 60% in 2023.
Racial disparities in the community also persist, with Black Austinites being far more likely to fall into homelessness than others despite making up a much smaller share of the population. ECHO has contended that the city's reinstated camping ban disproportionately harms Black residents as well.
Montaño said some of those levels point to an ongoing need for supportive housing additions, a goal that also remains in focus for city leaders, as it becomes more difficult to serve people the longer they remain unhoused.
"It really highlights the need that we need more units to be able to exit people out of the system quicker. Even though we have lots more projects and those projects are moving people in quickly, it’s not really beating the rate of inflow," he said.
The outlook
While the new data points to a growing homeless population in greater need, the organization also reported an increase in the amount of assistance offered with more housing support on the way.
Existing housing around the Austin area welcomed far more people last year than in years past, with thousands of move-ins across different programs.
Those initiatives also remain highly successful at moving people into housing; more than 4 in 5 rapid rehousing clients typically end up housed before their program exit. However, that share dropped down to two-thirds in 2023 before rebounding this year.
ECHO and local leaders are also looking ahead to the arrival of hundreds of new permanent supportive housing units to help address the rising number of those in need. More and more supportive housing developments are being built around Austin, aided in part by one-time federal pandemic relief funding.
Several such projects already opened or will open this year with nearly 350 new supportive housing units combined. Through 2027, almost 900 more units are expected to be added in other developments around Austin. However, ECHO anticipates more than 5,000 units will be needed in the coming decade.
Those updates are part of the hundreds of millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act support Austin and Travis County dedicated to homelessness. ARPA dollars are drying up though, leaving officials and community groups facing a likely gap for services in the coming years.
Montaño said the impending drop off in funding is a "large concern" that local organizations and entities like the city's Homeless Strategy Office are now planning for.
“We see that services are improving. People are getting housed quicker, more people are getting housed, and the racial disparities of people are getting housed is reducing. But there’s still work to do," he said.
Montaño also noted that ECHO has developed a new "map" of the Austin and Travis County Homeless Response System this year. He said the tool was compiled to help inform both potential clients and community members at large about available services and how the system works.
The new map is available to view here.
