Austin will fund targeted outreach around I-35 and Oltorf Street ahead of the planned opening of a new homeless resource center in the neighborhood.
What happened
The city is adding $250,000 to its contract with Sunrise Community Church to provide services to homeless individuals and families in the Oltorf area. Sunrise currently runs a homeless navigation center off Menchaca Road in South Austin, and is recommended to manage the new South Austin Housing Navigation Center.
City Council authorized the update July 23. The move came ahead of Sunrise's anticipated selection as operator of the planned resource hub at 2401 S. I-35, which officials agreed to purchase for more than $4 million last fall. The center will open next year with oversight from an advisory board including area residents, people with experience living homeless, and homelessness service providers.
Sunrise is now contracted for services at homeless encampments citywide. It will move to the targeted navigation services and outreach work specifically in South Austin this September, continuing until next October.
Focusing on the I-35/Oltorf area was a strategic shift based on feedback from local leaders and the navigation center board to invest in "stabilization strategies" before that facility opens next year, an Austin Homeless Strategies & Operations spokesperson said.
"The deployment of hyperlocal outreach to the neighborhood and area schools is in response to needs and priorities identified by the community. This investment is a demonstration of HSO’s commitment to working collaboratively with neighborhood leaders to improve the quality of life for the residents," they said.
What they're saying
The new city-sponsored services come after many area residents pushed back last year against the city's proposal to open the new navigation center off I-35, and more recently had raised concerns about the Sunrise contract update. Mayor Kirk Watson said his office had worked closely with neighborhood representatives ahead of the July vote and acknowledged shortcomings in Austin's handling of similar issues identified by residents.
“There’s a clear recognition that if we’re going to be asked for things to be located in certain places, we ought to go in on the front end and do what we can to strengthen," he said. “Frankly, I’ve been doing this long enough to recognize that we have made, clearly, maybe some mistakes in the past of not paying attention on the front end so that you don’t add to issues that already exist. And I feel pretty strongly about that.”
Council member José Velásquez, the area's representative, also set requirements for quarterly data releases on Sunrise's service delivery and housing outcomes for the individuals and families it works with. City leaders will report to council with updates on their public engagement and overall homeless service offerings as well.
Malcolm Yeatts, chair of East Riverside/Oltorf Neighborhood Plan Contact Team, said the resident group supports programming to address homelessness but that the city had initially used an "on-the-fly creation process" with a lack of public outreach ahead of the July vote. Erika Shadburne, an Oltorf-area resident and member of the South Austin Neighborhood Safety Alliance, told council she was in favor of the contract expansion with Velásquez's added direction.
“We feel that street outreach for homeless services along Oltorf are essential," she said. "We feel that this kind of data collection and transparency is really important to making sure that the program is effective, and also building trust with the community.”
Zooming in
Austin hadn't yet set performance measures for Sunrise's upcoming work as contract negotiations remained active this summer. The church's street outreach will involve connecting unsheltered residents with "transformative supports" like housing, healthcare and shelter, the HSO spokesperson said.
"HSO anticipates the available resources will enable the delivery of highly focused navigation and housing stabilization support for very high-needs households in three Austin Independent School District schools, and a sustained non-emergency social service outreach presence within the neighborhood," they said.
The spokesperson also said that, while there's no exact count of unsheltered individuals and at-risk families in the I-35/Oltorf area, it's likely at higher need.
"[T]here is access to data that demonstrates homelessness and housing vulnerability are disproportionately prevalent within the area," they said. "HSO looks forward to providing more robust supports to households in crisis once the South Austin Housing Navigation Center opens in 2027."
What else?
Alongside the Sunrise contract amendment advanced July 23, council members added funding to Austin's contract with Integral Care for the Homeless Outreach Street Team, or HOST, program it runs in partnership with city public safety departments. HOST connects homeless individuals and families with resources, primarily around downtown and the University of Texas at Austin campus.
