Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Chaired by Mayor Pro Tem Vela in the Mayor's absence, the Austin City Council work session was devoted to item B1, a staff and partner briefing on No Wrong Door, a coordinated crisis care program for high utilizers of the criminal justice, health care and homeless systems involving 17 organizations that have signed memorandums of understanding. Presenters from the Community Court, Travis County, Homeless Strategies and Operations, Integral Care, EMS, APD and Central Health described an estimated 950 high-need individuals costing about $137 million a year, early APD data showing fewer police crisis contacts for the top 99 utilizers, about 40% of whom have signed consent agreements, and Central Health's planned $127.5 million in FY27 crisis and recovery care, including a proposed mental health crisis center. Eleven public speakers were split: public defenders and harm reduction, labor and advocacy groups raised concerns about attorney access, information sharing, Miranda warnings and bond recommendations, while the Downtown Austin Alliance, ECHO, The Other Ones Foundation and Family Bridge supported the program. Council members asked about Cicero Institute involvement, the use of arrest history to select participants, defense participation, post-adjudication versus pretrial diversion, involuntary commitment, outcome metrics and the city's legislative agenda; staff said the Cicero Institute is not involved in designing the program and the city is not seeking to lower the legal threshold for involuntary commitment. No action was taken, and the executive session was postponed to Thursday.
0:06 You're watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro tim chitovela, council
0:17 members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, Krista lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, Zo kadri,
0:41 mark Duchen, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broadnax.
1:00 Three, four. Good morning, y'all.
1:03 Uh, we will start as soon as we have quorum.
1:09 What do you know, chair?
1:10 You got yourself a quorum.
1:26 Good morning, everyone. Uh, we, a quorum is present and I will call the meeting to order, the
1:34 work session meeting to order at, uh, 9:00.
1:37 Uh, it is, uh, Tuesday, October 6th.
1:43 Uh, and we will turn to the clerk to call the speakers.
1:49 And by the way, I will be chairing the meeting today.
1:51 The Mayor is, uh, out of town, uh, is away on important city business.
1:58 Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.
1:59 On item b1, speaking remotely, me- melissa shearer.
2:09 Good morning. Um, this is melissa scheer and I am speaking on behalf of myself, not on travis
2:16 county. Um, but my role is I am the mental health public defender, and I am calling today
2:23 because I wanted to update the council on what's been happening with no wrong door from our perspective.
2:31 I, I, as I said many times to apd, carrie rogers, everyone that's doing no wrong door, we
2:40 are supportive of getting our clients the services that they need and getting them into long-term stability.
2:48 Our office has been open for 19 years and we have lawyers and social workers and case workers.
2:55 We're two to one, um, social, social service staff to lawyers.
3:01 And so we have deep, long, intensive case management relationships with these clients.
3:08 And my biggest concern is that the no wrong door program has declined to allow the defense to
3:16 be included in the staffing that they are doing with all of the other providers and the prosecution.
3:23 Um, another huge concern for me is that I'm aware that the, the sops were changed, that were
3:32 supposed to, um, address some of our concerns, but they actually don't.
3:38 I specifically said that we did not want our clients mirandized when they are seen by police.
3:46 If this is supposed to be something that is a case management role and not a law enforcement
3:52 role, then our clients should not be placed in that kind of a position, um, where evidence could
4:00 be used against them in the future if they make any statements, um, that are incriminating.
4:08 We want to work with no wrongdoor.
4:10 We provided safeguards that we think are appropriate.
4:14 Thank you very much.
4:15 Also speaking remotely on item b1, sneha patel.
4:23 Good morning, Mayor and council members.
4:25 My name is neha patel.
4:26 I'm an internal medicine physician who works in the public health safety net system here.
4:31 Um, I and my team care for people with severe mental illness, substance use disorders, and complex medical
4:36 and social conditions that require appropriate medical care and care coordination.
4:41 I fully support the goal of connecting people with complex medical and behavioral, uh, health needs to services,
4:48 but engagement with care must never cover, come at the cost of privacy, liberty, autonomy, or due process.
4:55 The record for no wrongdoer thus far shows troubling practices.
5:00 As melissa mentioned, officers repeatedly approaching people in jail without counsel, seeking releases that permit sharing psychiatric and
5:08 medical records with police and prosecutors and making bond recommendations tied to no, no wrongful contacts.
5:16 The pro - the program uses eight or more arrests as a primary selection criteria.
5:20 Arrests measure police contact, not clinical need.
5:25 Building outreach teams, uh, building outreach around arrest history will both deter care and deepen harms in already
5:32 over police communities. As a physician, I swore an oath to do no harm.
5:37 Medical providers cannot be placed in an ethical quandary where clinical care becomes a pathway to surveillance or
5:42 enforcement. I feel fully support funding treatment and care coordination, but not funding carceral response to medical and
5:49 mental health needs. And we must protect privacy and hipaa standards.
5:53 Um, one of the things I, I, I would recommend an independent community inclus- inclusive oversight, uh, of
6:00 this program with real enforcement, uh, power.
6:05 I do think that we can improve care and care coordination for austinites, care that really truly will
6:10 save lives and improve health, but we must protect rights, um, and, and we need to prioritize treatment,
6:17 equity and civil liberties, uh, in, through this process.
6:20 Thank you.
6:26 Speaking on item b1 remotely, cole weaver.
6:33 Hello, can y'all hear me?
6:36 Yes, we can hear you.
6:39 Okay. Um, my name is cole weaver.
6:42 Um, I, I am a u - a member of united workers of petal care, but I'm not really
6:47 speaking on behalf of them today.
6:50 I'm speaking specifically as a peer support specialist that has lived experience with, uh, psychiatric, uh, hospitalization and
7:02 what they have represented to me and re - and why I am wear - very, very weary of the
7:10 no one doors program at, in its current form, because carceral care in any way, shape or form
7:22 has never helped me and I know several of my peers/clients at that it never helped them either,
7:32 um, because, and it doesn't ha - it doesn't matter if it's law enforcement or if it's, you know,
7:40 involuntary commitment. I'm, uh, I'm against expanding that.
7:47 I'm against, you know, making it to where the community members are increasingly prevailed and now there's the
7:55 possibility of detentions being warrantless at that point.
8:01 Um, I know that there are other experts in, in this meeting that are gonna be speaking more
8:06 about what is actually the, the core issues with, core concerns with no wrong door, but I just
8:13 wanna state my position that mental healthcare needs to be collabor- collaborators, collaborative, it needs to be person-centered
8:27 because when it's not and when it's involuntary and when rights are vi - uh, when the autonomy is
8:37 violated because of whatever re - f - uh, for a variety of unjust reasons, I am going to be
8:44 against that. Thank you very much.
8:47 And I - we'll now move to in-person speakers on item b1, bradley hargis, bill bryce, lisa hugman, Ryan
8:58 poppe. Please state your name and begin speaking.
9:09 Good morning, Mayor Pro Tem and council members.
9:11 I'm bradley hargis with the capital area private defender service.
9:15 Our attorneys represent more than 18,000 people who cannot afford counsel last year.
9:20 We protect their rights, provide an independent voice and understand the legal consequences of decisions about treatment and
9:26 services. No wrong door sits at the intersection of criminal justice and healthcare, as vulnerable clients need support
9:34 and respects both. The program is well intended, but implementation without adequate safeguards is causing harm.
9:40 We have documented officers seeking bond conditions outside the ordinary legal process and attempts to have clients released
9:46 directly to officers against their wishes.
9:49 This program has disrupted ongoing casework without a, without adequately addressing the risk and interactions between police and
9:56 clients facing charges. Clients' liberty, autonomy and defense are at stake.
10:01 Good intentions cannot substitute for access to counsel and enforceable protections.
10:06 We ask counsel to require three things.
10:09 First, include defense providers in the memorandum of understanding and revise it to address the reasonable concerns that
10:15 we have expressed. Second, include defense organizations in every staffing concerning their clients before decisions are made.
10:23 Our ex- expertise, our experience, and our knowledge of their legal circumstances are essential to meaningful interventions.
10:31 Third, establish written safeguards addressing council's access before interviews or release of information, informed and voluntary consent, confidentiality,
10:42 the use of statements in criminal cases, and appropriate limits on communication with courts and prosecutors.
10:47 No wrongdoor cannot responsibly move forward without respecting the rights the attorneys protect.
10:53 Our clients should not have to risk their defense to receive care.
10:57 Please make defense participation in enforceable safeguards a condition of moving forward.
11:02 Thank you. Thank you, mr.
11:03 Hryce. Mr. Bryce? Good morning, council members and city manager.
11:08 I'm bill bryce with the downtown Austin alliance speaking in support of no wrong door.
11:13 I represent the downtown alliance on the no wrong door coalition and the significance of this collaboration to
11:18 identify and provide care for people who cycle through our criminal justice, healthcare and homeless systems cannot be
11:24 overstated. These are people with severe behavioral health issues who are unable to make decisions in their own
11:29 best interest and due to insufficient resources and coordination languish on our streets and in our jail.
11:35 Through no wrong door, local law enforcement and criminal justice, healthcare, city and county officials and homeless service
11:42 agencies are collaborating to identify and provide crisis care and step-down services for this population no matter where
11:49 they enter these systems.
11:51 No wrong door has identified 950 high utilizers whose untreated illness and homeless cost taxpayers an estimated 137
11:59 million a year without solving the problem.
12:01 And we see many of these people living on the streets downtown day after day not getting the
12:05 help they need. They cycle through jail, courts, hospitals, psych facilities, and social services and are often released
12:12 after a quick fix only to cycle through the systems again and again.
12:16 Through no wrong door, local partners are working to properly treat and restore people who languish on our
12:21 streets and in our jails, but this problem's not unique to Austin.
12:25 At recent texas house and senate hearings, urban and rural police departments, sheriff's associations, district and county attorneys,
12:32 local mental health authorities and social service providers from across the state testified on how this problem affects
12:38 health and safety and exceeds resources in their communities at costs they can't afford.
12:44 The downtown alliance applauds no wrong door as we strive to rally stakeholders and encourage legislators to fill
12:50 critical crisis service gaps, and we encourage you to put the full weight of the city of Austin
12:55 behind it. Thank you.
12:57 Thank you very much.
13:02 Good morning, city manager and council members.
13:05 My name is lisa hugman.
13:06 I'm the founder of family bridge, a privately funded nonprofit that provides temporary hotel respite for families with
13:14 children who are car camping.
13:16 I also served on the parks and rec board where I started a homelessness working group and have
13:20 spent several years studying homelessness solutions around the country.
13:24 I wanna start by recounting a conversation I had with an apd officer who's part of the no
13:28 wrong door team. He told me a story about a specific encounter with a high utilizer woman he
13:35 clearly cared for and was concerned for her wellbeing.
13:39 He had the knowledge and the dec- decision making to know what step to take next.
13:44 I was struck by his compassion and dedication and that he chose to be part of the no
13:49 wrong door team. But I'm here today because I believe no wrong door represents something our community desperately
13:55 needs, coordinated care for the high utilizer population who suffers sever- severe mental illness and have complex needs.
14:03 Prior to no wrong door, the only access to care for high utilizers was fragmented.
14:08 We could stabilize someone in a psychotic state, but without a continuum of care, we would send that
14:13 person back to the street.
14:14 The city began asking the right questions, do we help people who are cycling through ers, jails, streets,
14:21 and our mental health system without ever reaching I'm speaking about what I'm seeing having worked in this
14:28 space for several years.
14:30 The city is now leading the effort in redefining the multiple agency relationships that allow coordinated care and
14:37 no wrong door to happen.
14:39 All the partners are working together in a unified effort.
14:42 When one of our high utilizers is having a crisis, the first step is stabilization if necessary, and
14:48 then they are given the option to consent to further treatment.
14:52 I understand the concern about civil rights.