Despite the city’s work to move those living in homeless encampments into permanent housing, nearly half of all temporary shelter inhabitants exit the system and return to homelessness. One hundred and two people – 48 percent of those moved into shelter – in the Housing-Focused Encampment Assistance Link, or HEAL program, have left the program with […]
Austin City Council Public Health Committee
Formerly known as the Health and Human Services Committee, this Council subgroup oversees things such as “social services, education, public health, health care services, animal welfare, sustainable food, social equity, veterans’ affairs, populations at risk, and related matters,” according to the city website.
Posted inPublic Health
City explores harm reduction strategies to address the overdose crisis
The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance addressed the Public Health Committee last week about the overdose crisis in Travis County. More than 300 people in the area died of a preventable overdose last year, and more than 100 of those deaths were from a fentanyl overdose – a 237 percent increase from the year before. The […]
Posted inPublic Health
Draft resolution targets opioid epidemic
City Council is set to consider a resolution this week that would declare opioid overdoses a public health crisis and increase support services needed to address the issue. Members of the Public Health Committee, all of whom are co-sponsoring the draft resolution, met last week to discuss the item as it will appear on Council’s […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment
HAAM seeks $1M from city to provide health care for musicians
The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians is seeking $1 million from the city to help maintain health care coverage for 3,000 local musicians and cover an additional 1,000 who qualify for assistance from the nonprofit. During a presentation at last week’s meeting of City Council’s Public Health Committee, HAAM CEO Paul Scott said his group […]
Posted inAustin
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 presentation Wednesday detailing the current state of work to break up and manage the homeless communities […]
Posted inEducation
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 federal grant money into child care services as part of its 2021-22 budget. Child care […]
Posted inAustin
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 last week’s meeting of City Council’s Public Health Committee, Homeless Strategy Officer Dianna Grey revealed that […]
Posted inPublic Health
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 County Department of Health and Human Services, the city of Austin and Central Health have […]
Posted inPublic Health
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 look at the feasibility of funding and opening a center, which would cost at least […]
Posted inAustin
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 now well underway and the city has begun to collect preliminary data on the program. […]
Posted inPublic Health
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 solicitations, all designed to increase the city’s capacity to address Austin’s homelessness crisis. The three […]
Posted inPublic Health
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 use seven different times by an average of 88 people, most of them men (only 17 […]