Tag Archives: Austin City Council Public Health Committee
Staff seeks to build a better way to manage homeless encampments
City staffers are making a series of changes to the management of homeless encampments, with a centralized response and assessment system in the works that is expected to become operational later this summer. City Council’s Public Health Committee received a…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • May 13, 2022
Public Health Committee hears update on $11 million child care investment
Staff members leading city and county efforts to expand child care services gave City Council’s Public Health Committee an update last Wednesday on the impacts of last year’s budget cycle. Last summer, Council approved the investment of $11 million in…
Education • By Kali Bramble • Apr 18, 2022
Tight rental market increasing wait times for city efforts to house the homeless
The city’s tight rental market is causing some delays in efforts to find housing for people who have recently been removed from homeless encampments as part of a program launched last year targeting those gathering areas around the city. At…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Apr 18, 2022
Health leaders developing plan to help those with substance use disorder
For the past two years, a network of local stakeholders has been thinking about how best to help community members who struggle with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. After two years of “planning to plan,” representatives from the Travis…
Public Health • By Willow Higgins • Mar 17, 2022
Austin looks into opening a trauma recovery center
Austin’s Public Health Committee is taking a look at establishing a trauma recovery center in the city to help victims of violent crime navigate their way to recovery. The resolution, which the committee passed last week, directs city staff to…
Public Health • By Willow Higgins • Mar 15, 2022
HEAL Initiative for the unhoused turns one year old
About a year has passed since Austin City Council adopted the HEAL Initiative, which is designed to connect houseless people living in encampments to housing or shelter and supportive services. The Housing-Focused Encampment Assistance Link, or HEAL as it is known, is…
Austin • By Willow Higgins • Feb 22, 2022
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APH launches three phases of solicitations to increase homeless services
Austin Public Health is seeking partners in social services to help provide for the city’s unhoused community. This winter and spring, APH’s Health Equity and Community Engagement Division is working with the Homeless Strategy Division to release three phases of…
Public Health • By Willow Higgins • Feb 17, 2022
Cold weather shelters kept hundreds warm in cold snap
On the rare occasions when the weather in Austin gets uncomfortably cold, Austin Public Health, the Homeless Strategy Division and the Parks and Recreation Department work together to activate the city’s cold weather shelters. In January, the shelters were put to…
Public Health • By Willow Higgins • Feb 14, 2022
Resilience hub initiative continues to evolve
Winter Storm Uri, the extreme weather event that left an unknown number of Austin residents dead last February, inspired the initiative to create resilience hubs across the city that would act as a public resource in times of crisis. The initial…
Public Health • By Willow Higgins • Nov 16, 2021
Homeless Strategy Office gears up to launch second phase of HEAL initiative
Following the success of its pilot program this past summer, Austin’s Homeless Strategy Office is moving forward with its four-part plan to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis. Homeless Strategy Officer Dianna Grey briefed the Public Health Committee last Wednesday on…
