AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the city of Austin looks to release its proposed budget next week, how much money will be dedicated to homelessness? That could be a focal point of budget conversations after Austin City Council voted to make homelessness a top spending priority earlier this year.
“We’re positioning our investments in the homelessness response system as one of the city of Austin’s top funding priorities, which is critical. And you’ve heard it before, we’ll say it again, our budget is our moral compass. Where we put our money is where our heart is,” Austin City Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison said at the time.
City of Austin proposed budget to be released next week — what to expect
Now we have an idea of how much the city thinks it may need in a memo from the Homeless Strategy Office (HSO). The HSO “identified $101 million in funding considerations to grow the homeless response system’s capacity and impact,” the memo says.
That $101 million wouldn’t all come from the city or be ongoing funding, David Gray, the city’s Homeless Strategy Officer, told KXAN. Gray says roughly a third of that identified cost is one-time allocations, for example, American Rescue Plan Act funding the city received during the pandemic or other one-time funds Austin City Council already voted to spend on homelessness…