Austin groups granted $14M in federal funding to address homelessness
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin-Travis County groups working to address homelessness have been awarded funding from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), according to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO).
Eight organizations will receive a cumulative nearly $14 million, which will go toward housing, services for people experiencing homelessness and “system coordination,” a release from ECHO said.
“These federal resources strengthen our local initiatives to ensure that more people have access to the support they need to thrive,” said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. “I want to thank former Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman for supporting Austin’s homeless response efforts. And I look forward to working with HUD Secretary nominee Scott Turner, who knows Texas and knows first-hand what can be accomplished when we work together.”
“We are just really excited that the federal government and HUD is still moving forward with this allocation and we are very grateful to our service partners who are doing this hard work every day,” said Kate Moore, vice president of homelessness response system strategy at ECHO.
The eight groups that will receive funding are:
- Caritas of Austin
- Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO)
- Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA)
- Housing Authority of Travis County (HATC)
- Integral Care
- LifeWorks
- The SAFE Alliance
- Sunrise Community Church (Sunrise Navigation Center)
Some of the nearly $14 million will go toward permanent supportive housing projects and wrap-around services. Those projects will help address homelessness in certain populations: youth, survivors of domestic violence and people with severe mental illness, according to ECHO.
Integral Care says their chunk of funding will allow them to expand services at Community First! Village. They intend to add more staff on site and provide support for more than two dozen additional residents.
“This is really intensive support. So we’ll provide wrap-around case management, skills training, we have some peers to provide peer support specialists, living skills groups, behavioral health management, we have a psychiatrist on site that provides psychiatric services,” said Marlene Buchanan, director of systems of care with Integral Care.
