Austin’s daily encampment cleanups cost $719,316 and sheltered 35 people in first month

Austin’s homeless encampment management (HEM) initiative made 456 visits to 127 sites and connected 35 people to shelter in its first 30 days, city staff told the City Council’s Public Health Committee at its Sept. 2 meeting. Staff put the cost of those 30 days at $719,316.

Crews removed 303.62 tons of debris in that time, said Patricia Barrera, division manager for public space management in Austin Homeless Strategy and Operations. Police issued five citations, all for public camping, and made no arrests. About 28% of campsites saw people camp again within 30 days.

The cleanups are now daily. Six teams go out every day, Barrera said, and the city maps cleared “keep clear” sites, where staff move quickly to stop new camps.

Four public speakers asked the committee to pause or rethink the program, saying it destroys belongings and moves people without housing them. Staff said the program was built to comply with Proposition B and state law, is changing in response to feedback and will be measured again this fall.

“Stop measuring success by displacement of the tents.”

David Gray, director of Austin Homeless Strategy and Operations, said most of the cost is staff salaries the city was already spending on encampment cleanups and closures. Barrera said that money “can't be shifted to social services or housing, unfortunately.”

“Let's take these dollars and put them in a process that is better coordinated, better organized, and allows us to sustain progress,” Gray said.

How does a cleanup work?

Complaints, often through 311, prompt staff to assess a site and rank it by risk and team capacity, Barrera said. Outreach workers then offer shelter or other help, and staff give about 72 hours’ written notice before crews clear and restore the site.

Gray said staff now publish the keep-clear sites and where crews plan to work the following week, and share that list with outreach providers. “In cases, we have actually paused our plan based on the community feedback,” Gray said.

Asked by Council Member José Velásquez (District 3), Gray said teams directly contacted 88 people: 35 accepted shelter, nine accepted other services and 44 declined. Shelters have not run out of room and run at 85% to 90% of capacity, Gray told Vice Chair Marc Duchen (District 10). Downtown, Gray said, the homeless count has held at about 450 to 500 people while tents and structures are down 80% to 85% from a few years ago.

Barrera said people are also moving onto private property and into wooded areas, and staff are working with the city’s code department.

What critics said

Eli Cortez, a District 3 resident and community organizer, said the program “cost us over $700,000 after one month and only placed 35 folks in shelter.” Cortez said more than 40 community organizations had signed a letter opposing it.

Cortez described a woman at the Oak Springs encampment, now a keep-clear site, who was at work when her tent was thrown out without notice. She lost the birth certificates of herself and her child, Cortez said.

Lily Hughes, capacity building manager at the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance and a District 5 resident, said the group spends “$4,000 a month we are using to replace items destroyed during sweeps.” “The only thing that solves homelessness is housing,” Hughes said.

Smith described being swept: “When my belongings was swept, nobody came before and offered me shelter.” Smith asked the council for a resolution requiring HEM reports to follow each person from first contact to permanent housing.

Other residents want stricter enforcement, including Ernest Hoover, who lives on the border of Districts 3 and 5 and showed the council slides of an encampment near St. Elmo Elementary School at its Aug. 27 meeting. “There should be zero tolerance of encampments in neighborhoods,” Hoover said.

How staff answered

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2), the committee chair, cited the alliance’s May survey of 100 people, in which 80% reported something critical taken or destroyed. Gray said the city’s main storage program, Violet KeepSafe, is often full, and that sorting belongings at some sites is not always safe for crews.

“Let us use our leverage as a city department to help make it right,” Gray said, citing help replacing birth certificates and IDs.

Gray said the city could not validate the survey’s finding that 74% got no service connection. City data show 50% accepted shelter or services, Gray said, but someone who declines several times is counted as a decline even after later accepting.

Asked by Duchen where the most work remains, Gray named staffing, technology and trust, including hiring outreach workers with lived experience of homelessness.

What it costs

At the Aug. 12 budget adoption, the council approved Council Member Mike Siegel’s (District 7) amendment adding $500,000 to double Violet KeepSafe storage, citing demand from the new program. Mayor Kirk Watson and Duchen were shown voting no, and staff’s final balancing package made the money one-time.

Gray said the Marshalling Yard shelter has served more than 2,300 people in three years, and more than 470 have moved into housing, “which is one every two to three days.” Hughes said the slide leaves out that it took three years.

Numeric shelter and housing targets, which Council Member Ryan Alter (District 5) sought in an amendment, are on hold, Gray said. A federal Continuum of Care funding notice shifted money away from rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing, and a court has since paused that process.

Local organizations receive a total of $14 million in federal homeless services money, about $8 million of it for permanent supportive housing, Gray said. “Those are the dollars that are really at risk right now,” Gray said. City-funded supportive housing is stable, Gray told Alter.

What happens next?

Barrera said data for the period after the first 30 days will be released this fall. Gray said updates will come quarterly, with staff returning to the committee.

At the committee’s Oct. 7 meeting, Fuentes said a briefing on the homelessness encampment strategy is scheduled for November. The committee next meets Wednesday, Nov. 4, and Gray said residents can report problems, including lost belongings, through 311.

“The part that we can control is offering the service connection,” Gray said. “We, we cannot force people to accept it.”