Austin gets new homelessness division, renewed focus in 2020

Austin City Council members are jumping into the new year with a new round of funding to address homelessness.

The council on Thursday will consider a handful of contract amendments worth $612,336 to beef up the Guided Path Program, which began as a pilot in late 2019 to provide individualized care to people living around the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.

Since the pilot effort began, 18 of the 99 people in the program have been housed. An additional 60 are enrolled or soon to be enrolled in programs that lead to permanent housing, according to city data.

The amendments, brought from Austin Public Health, will be divided among the Salvation Army, Front Steps, Family Eldercare and Caritas of Austin, all of which would receive $102,056. Integral Care would net $204,112.

The new funding money allow the program to begin reaching out to more people who are homeless in areas other than the ARCH’s immediate vicinity.

Greg McCormack, executive director of Front Steps, which manages the ARCH, said the Guided Path Program showed the city that connecting with a very specific population works.

“The folks that we're working with through Guided Path were people who were incredibly difficult to engage with,” he said. “They had been approached before, they had been approached the second time and had never engaged with the service provider.”

McCormack said Guided Path made inroads with people who are homeless, and he thinks that success can be replicated throughout the city.

While expanding Guided Path is underway, city staffers also are building out a new Homeless Services Division within Austin Public Health.

The new division comes after the departure of Austin’s former Homeless Strategy Officer Lori Pampilo Harris, a much-touted hire named to the post in September, but who announced after one month she would move to a part-time consulting role instead.

Assistant City Manager Chris Shorter, who will supervise the new division, said Pampilo Harris’ contract with the city expired in December.

The division’s work will mimic the scope of the homeless strategy officer’s role by aligning and coordinating city efforts, setting priorities and working with outside agencies like Front Steps and the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition.

McCormack said it makes sense to move the division under public health because the health agency has been involved in homeless services, contracts and funding.

“I hope they can create the division so that it has avenues to get things done quickly and be flexible, because we know that’s what is needed,” he said.

Council Member Jimmy Flannigan, however, cautioned the city’s staff against duplicating efforts.

“In cities that are doing the best work related to ending homelessness, it is the job of the lead agency to manage the system. And I'm concerned that we are setting up parallel systems, one managed by the city, one managed by ECHO, which is not going to be efficient,” he said.

Flannigan said he hopes city staffers build a system in which ECHO is in charge of addressing Austin’s homeless system, with the city granting money to ECHO and holding the organization accountable, rather than the city taking over.