No Wrong Door goes to the Capitol: the seven state proposals Austin plans for 2027

A week after the Austin City Council put new oversight rules on No Wrong Door, city staff have laid out the state laws and budget money they plan to seek for it. A memo dated Oct. 22 from Austin Government Relations Director Carrie Rogers lists seven proposals the city and its partners plan to bring to legislators for the 2027 session, which starts in January.

No Wrong Door coordinates police, EMS, health care and homeless services for the people who cycle most often through jails, emergency rooms and the streets. Much of what the program says it lacks, such as psychiatric beds and data sharing, depends on Austin's partners and on the state. The memo is the city's clearest list yet of what it will ask Austin's legislators to file.

The seven proposals

The memo lists each proposal and which partner is leading it:

• a bill on hospital mental health exclusion criteria and admissions data (Integral Care);
• a bill, a budget rider and a refiled SB 719 on psychiatric bed availability (City);
• a bill on coordinated discharge, or "warm handoffs," between providers (City);
• a refiled SB 2488 on homelessness data sharing (all partners);
• a rider and a refiled HB 154 to fund local mental health authorities and raise the psychiatric per-day rate (Integral Care);
• a rider to fund a Central Texas mental health crisis center and intermediate or "step-down" beds (all partners);
• a rider on the federal Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion waiver (Integral Care).

The background

The memo traces the effort to 2024 meetings that state Sen. Tan Parker called with big Texas cities and homeless service providers. In 2025 he filed SB 2487, on county crisis care centers, SB 2488 and SB 2489. The city opposed SB 2489, which the memo says would have penalized local governments over homeless services. State Rep. Donna Howard filed HB 1656, which would have let emergency medical personnel make warrantless emergency detentions. The city supported it. None of those bills passed, and the memo says Parker and Howard are expected to try similar bills in 2027.

The memo also warns that "it is not 'the City's bill'" once a legislator files it. Lawmakers will have other priorities, including some that "directly conflict" with the city's goals, it says. Local partners have repeatedly named two gaps, according to the memo: poor coordination among programs, and too few crisis, intermediate and step-down beds.

What our records add

The council asked for this. The resolution the council adopted Oct. 22, 26-2940, requires quarterly reports that include legislative efforts, and a sub-quorum of council members to guide legislative goals. It passed without objection, with Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison absent, the meeting record shows. Our story on that vote has the details.

Council members asked at the work session. At the Oct. 6 work session, Council Member José Velásquez asked how many bills the city was working on and how much input the council would have. Rogers said the partners were still sorting out whether to pursue separate bills or one combined bill, and that "nothing is final at this point." Later, Council Member Mike Siegel asked whether the city was no longer trying to lower the legal bar for civil commitment. Rogers said it was not: "It has never been a part of our legislative program."

Psychiatric capacity. At the same work session, a Central Health presenter said the hospital district is putting $33.1 million toward psychiatric emergency and inpatient capacity, including 10 psychiatric emergency bays and 22 inpatient beds, because Travis County has no dedicated psychiatric emergency department. Central Health has also set aside $16 million toward a mental health crisis center with the city, county and other partners. The memo's crisis center rider would seek state money for that center.

At the committee. During the Oct. 7 Public Health Committee discussion, Council Member Krista Laine praised the legislative work by Rogers and others, and said how much reporting the council should require depends on how much it trusts leadership is moving in the right direction.

What's next

The city's 2027 legislative program was adopted July 23, the memo says. Staff will now share the proposals with legislators so bills can be drafted by the Texas Legislative Council. Updates will come before and during the session, which opens in January, and the council's quarterly No Wrong Door reports will include legislative progress.