Mapping Out a Solution
Austin's Homeless Task Force
Fri., July 4, 1997
Richard Troxell leads the fight for Austin's homeless. |
With Austin's no-camping ordinance up for repeal this summer, all eyes are now looking to the proposed homeless campus to save the day. To be sure, homeless people in Austin are in a Catch-22 position. With an estimated 6,000 homeless locally, and only 300 beds available for them, the bed deficit naturally leads people to sleep in public places, which is illegal. Councilmember Jackie Goodman was the first to foresee this snafu, and when the camping ban was initially discussed in the fall of 1995, she proposed the formation of the Homeless Task Force (HTF) to study the way other cities approach the problem. The more people HTF talked to, the more good things they heard about a project in Orlando, Florida, which has decreased misdemeanor and nuisance calls downtown by 40%. Established in 1992 by the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, Orlando has a homeless campus that puts all necessary services in a single locale. Located near downtown, the Coalition Campus includes an open-air pavilion for single men, a homeless center for women and children, transitional apartments, a TB shelter, hot meals, health care, case management, and a Head Start program, all in the same place.
Impressed with the Orlando model and encouraged by its record of success, the HTF recommended, in the fall of 1995, that the city build a similar structure, but no one on the council or the task force had visited Florida yet and very little information about the cost of replicating the Orlando model had been compiled. In addition, the council was skeptical about whether Austin could afford a similar campus or whether the success of the model campus was a direct or indirect result of nearby Walt Disney World on the local economy. In the end, the council decided it did not have sufficient information to follow Orlando's lead and, in January 1996, passed the camping ban ordinance to deal with the homeless problem downtown.
Almost immediately afterward, House the Homeless, a homeless advocacy group, filed suit against the city claiming the ban was unconstitutional. In response, the Homeless Task Force began studying the problem of homelessness and uncovered several disturbing statistics. Proportionate to cities of comparable size, Austin lacks adequate emergency shelters; family shelters, for example, currently run at 145% of capacity. However, the most compelling finding, for many, has been that the average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is nine.
"If there has been an offense to people, it hasn't been from the behavior of nine-year-olds. We don't need the encampment ordinance to deal with nine-year-olds, we need the encampment ordinance to deal with offensive behavior," says Councilmember Gus Garcia, who is now seeking alternatives to the ordinance.
Austin Police Lt. Michael Lasley, who heads up the downtown precinct where the homeless are concentrated, confirms that the homeless population is, in fact, quite diverse. "They run a wide gamut. There are people that need to be helped and if they're willing to accept help I think we should do that," he says.
In Austin in particular, homelessness is a by-product of an expanding economy. In a city where rental housing costs have increased 40% in the last five years, and home sales prices 46%, it should not be a surprise that nearly a third of Travis County residents spend over a third of their income on housing. Nor should it be a surprise that the rising cost of living is literally driving people into the streets. For example, 43% of homeless mothers in Austin are fully employed, but they are unable to afford housing on their current salaries.
With those grim figures in mind, members of the council and the HTF traveled to Orlando last August at their own expense to inspect the Coalition Campus. The delegation found that 70% of the individuals who use the Coalition's programs achieve and maintain self-sufficiency, that 40% of single men who use the pavilion obtain employment, and that 60% of families who use the facilities have a place to live when they leave, and do not return.
Many councilmembers were inspired by the Orlando model. "Yes, there are services already for people in Austin. But without somebody to do intake, analysis, and coordination of those services for the person, [rehabilitation] is not going to happen," says Councilmember Beverly Griffith.
The public seems to be equally in favor of the campus concept. In November of 1996, a poll conducted by Central Texas Directions found that 75% of residents in Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Hays, and Caldwell counties supported the idea of a homeless campus. And Austin's homeless population similarly endorses the project. Canvassing soup kitchens and overnight shelters, the Emergency Shelter Subcommittee of the HTF found that over 90% of respondents indicated that they "would come to a day/night shelter if it were safe, drug free, and they were treated with respect."
Richard Troxell, co-chair of House the Homeless, is convinced that a full-service homeless center will be well-utilized by the homeless. "If we get them to convince each other through their own successes, they will gladly run off the street," he says.
Having confirmed the success of the Orlando model and support for its replication in Austin, the homelessness council literally sent its findings to the drawing board. Volunteer architect Sarah Swearer's initial rendering shows a 70,000-square-foot campus with an estimated cost of $4.8 million, not counting purchasing the land and site preparation. "It's going to take a long time unless an interim location is found, an old warehouse or something to put them in, until we build what we want," Garcia said.
That project will prove to be a challenge for HTF Chairman Richard Peña's ability to build coalitions. A lawyer whose clientele predominantly consists of lower-income persons, Peña was among those who privately criticized the camping ban. He wrote a gently critical letter to then Mayor Bruce Todd, and, though he had only expected to offer some advice, Peña wound up being appointed to the task force, then being elected chairman.
Peña and the HTF envision funding for the campus coming from three sources: one-third from the city, one-third from the county and one-third from private interests. The private sector is going to be the hard sell, said task force member David Gomez. "It's hard to get a commitment from the private sector at this stage. They're saying `don't make us be a part of choosing the site, because that's a hot potato,'" Gomez said of the arduous task of finding a suitable location for the homeless campus.
In fact, a recent leak from the HTF to the Statesman last month about the three proposed sites, one in East Austin and two in South Austin, created a minor political tornado around the siting of the campus. Former Councilmember Eric Mitchell tried to ban any attempt to place the campus in the already blighted areas East of I-35, but his proposal fell flat with a council who is anxious to get started with the project.
Peña is optimistic that once the project gets underway, the campus will be embraced by the city. "Our hope is that the campus will galvanize the community," he says. "It can't turn its back on reasonable solutions."
Just to be on the safe side, though, Peña has enlisted the volunteer help of Travis Froelich, vice-president for public relations at Seton Hospital. If the spin doctor cannot cure the recent rash of bad press the task force suffered in the wake of Eric Mitchell lambasting the idea of an East Austin site, the city's most comprehensive solution yet to its persistent homeless problem may end as all the others -- in defeat.
With additional reporting by Kayte VanScoy.
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