Unhoused & unfunded
The city doesn't have the $ to beat homelessness.
Mackenzie Kelly released from hospital
Yesterday Council Member Mackenzie Kelly was taken to the hospital following what her office described as a "medical event," just before Council met for a budget work session.
Today her office said that she has been released from the hospital. It did not provide any details about the nature of the event, but hopefully her short stay is an indication that she recovered quickly.
A grim look at Austin's intractable homeless crisis
From just about any perspective –– humanitarian, public safety, the economy –– homelessness is one of Austin's greatest challenges. It deserves a great deal of our city government's attention.
So it makes sense that of the six work sessions that City Council chose to dedicate one of its six budget work sessions to the city's homelessness response.
My takeaway from yesterday: the city has made some progress on the issue, but every part of the homelessness response system is much smaller than what this massive problem demands.
Worse, due to budget constraints put in place by the state legislature, the city is struggling to find the money just to maintain the systems we've recently put in place. There's little hope of substantially improving the homeless response system without help from outside funding sources or a voter-approved tax increase.
One-time funds, permanent problems
Three years ago, City Council dedicated the large majority the money it received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) –– $100M –– to homelessness. Some of that money was used for one-time expenses, but some of it was used to fund what we expected to be recurring costs, such as operating shelters.
