North Austin hotels to be purchased to house 150 homeless (Cesar Chavez: city hall, car)

[verybadgnome]

Latest is $515M for a plan, but with an almost $300M funding gap. CM Alter proposed the gap being shared by city, county and philanthropic.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/aust...ness-services/

[ScoPro]

Nothing but a grifting scam... perpetrated by your elected grifters.

[cheeva]

As long as there is money to be made off of the homeless problem, the problem will never go away.

Laws could fix this tomorrow.

[riaelise]

The budget is costly...but what are you gonna do? You enact laws to get bums off the streets but they gotta go somewhere...

[cheeva]

Originally Posted by riaelise

The budget is costly...but what are you gonna do? You enact laws to get bums off the streets but they gotta go somewhere...

It's been explained repeatedly, but the question keeps getting answered:

1. Do NOT purchase a hotel at a cost of $171,000 per homeless person.
2. Find affordable alternatives, and use existing funding ALREADY available to those people (EBT, SSDI, Medicare, etc.).

Houses for less than $100K in Texas. There are over 2000 of them, with multiple bedrooms. Enough to house 6000 people at about 67K per person.


https://www.propertyshark.com/homes/...r-Sale/TX.html

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by cheeva

https://www.propertyshark.com/homes/...r-Sale/TX.html

Well.. ..to be fair the avg cost of a home on that site is somewhere around $120k

$515 Million divided by 3k homeless comes out to a housing cost of $171.6k per homeless individual, noting that not all of that will be dedicated toward housing but also social services and other resource and when it comes down to the cost of housing, will be somewhat closer to the avg per that site.

In this approach, it's a fair deal, the major concern is if later on we will find the costs to resolve the issue ballooning out of control like they in California ultimately leading to hundreds of millions spent for no resolution as either more homeless come, or the city is dishonest about the spending and grift the money... or both... I personally wouldn't care so much about it IF the problem were fixed, but what would worry me is, will it truly fix the issue...

[ashbeeigh]

A homeless person without medical coverage could end up costing the city/county/state 171k in one hospital stay. If it’s a chronic condition, then that cost increases and increases and increases. So, would you all rather continue to fund hospital stays through the health district, Central Health, or pay one time 171k for housing? Getting Medicaid requires a physical address. Without the address they can’t get coverage, so using “existing” resources is not sn option without an address.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

A homeless person without medical coverage could end up costing the city/county/state 171k in one hospital stay. If it’s a chronic condition, then that cost increases and increases and increases. So, would you all rather continue to fund hospital stays through the health district, Central Health, or pay one time 171k for housing? Getting Medicaid requires a physical address. Without the address they can’t get coverage, so urging “existing” resources is not sn option without an address.

Personally, I am for housing them...

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Well.. ..to be fair the avg cost of a home on that site is somewhere around $120k

$515 Million divided by 3k homeless comes out to a housing cost of $171.6k per homeless individual, noting that not all of that will be dedicated toward housing but also social services and other resource and when it comes down to the cost of housing, will be somewhat closer to the avg per that site.

In this approach, it's a fair deal, the major concern is if later on we will find the costs to resolve the issue ballooning out of control like they in California ultimately leading to hundreds of millions spent for no resolution as either more homeless come, or the city is dishonest about the spending and grift the money... or both... I personally wouldn't care so much about it IF the problem were fixed, but what would worry me is, will it truly fix the issue...

I would just want there to be accountability to ensure that the money is really going where it needs to go and some checks and balances to be installed to ensure that the cost to house them doesn't become astronomical.

[S.Allen]

Austin....you are looking more like San Fran lately.


Not a good look...

[cheeva]

Originally Posted by S.Allen

Austin....you are looking more like San Fran lately.


Not a good look...

What's most embarrassing is that everyone saw this coming from as far back as 2016, when residents and neighborhood associations started raising red flags, met with city officials, and demanded action BEFORE it turned into a sh**show like SF, LA, Seattle, or Portland.

The council responded by allowing public camping, and turned it into a s**show....

SF at least had the excuse of being blindsided by the problem. What's happening in Austin is 2X as embarrassing.