I want to thank everyone that attended the public Forum on Homelessness hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance this week. As a Council, we have been listening to the people of Austin, our city staff, and the many stakeholders who work with people experiencing homelessness in our community. We are committed to a continued community conversation on homelessness leading to further Council action in September that would include, but not be limited to, the kinds of ideas described in
this document
that I worked to draft with the Mayor and Council Member Tovo. We appreciate also the ideas contributed by CM Casar.
This has been posted to the public
Council Message Board
because the entire Council joined in setting homelessness as our City’s highest priority and all of us will continue working together on this issue. This document is intended to present ideas for action and we welcome discussion on these and other ideas.
Our focus must continue to be on the need for housing as a solution to homelessness. We also need to address issues affecting our community in the meantime, and we have proposed immediately identifying areas that are not humane places for people to stay or may raise public health or safety issues such as close to roadways, medians, schools, and shelters. We want to hear from the community on these ideas and if you have comments to provide, please contact your D5 office.
I also want to remind you of two public forums on homelessness happening in the next couple of weeks:
Forum on Homelessness - Hosted by LBJ School of Public Affairs
and the LBJ Presidential Library
Thursday, August 29, 2019
6:00-8:00 PM
UT Austin - Thompson Conference Center
2405 Robert Dedman Dr.
Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium
South Austin Forum on Homelessness- Hosted by The Center for Ethics and Leadership at St Edward's University
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
7:00 PM
Jones Auditorium (Room 101) inside the Ragsdale Center at St. Edward's University
3001 South Congress Avenue
Registration Opening Friday, Aug 23
I hope you are able to attend and look forward to a continued community discussion. Let’s find a constructive way to move forward to end homelessness.
Best Regards,
