AUSTIN, Texas — During its regularly-scheduled meeting Thursday, Austin City Council unanimously approved two multimillion dollar contracts for two area nonprofits to run the city’s Northbridge and Southbridge shelters, which help to house people residing in encampments.
Austin Area Urban League will manage the Southbridge Shelter, which is off of Interstate 35 near St. Edward’s University, and Family Endeavors, Inc. will manage the Northbridge Shelter, which is next to I-35 and. U.S. 183. The Southbridge Shelter operates out of a converted hotel that can manage about 145 beds, while the Northbridge Shelter can house approximately 125 beds.
The two shelters were created through the city’s Housing-focused Encampment Assistance Link Initiative (HEAL).
The HEAL Initiative was created by council in February 2021 prior to Austin residents voting to approve Proposition B, which banned public camping, during the May 2021 election. The controversial proposition passed with 57% approval, and police began to enforce it soon after.
According to the city’s website, the HEAL initiative was designed to “compassionately close the most unsafe encampments in our city by offering people experiencing homelessness a direct pathway to crisis shelter and opportunities to attain stable housing, sustainably reducing public camping in unsafe areas.”
Back in July, two years after the shelters were created, the City of Austin’s Homeless Strategy Division recommended improvements to the city’s emergency shelter strategy.
By October, the city was asking over 650 nonprofits to apply to manage the shelters and four proposals were submitted – three for Northbridge and one for Southbridge.
For each year, the city will pay the nonprofits over $3 million dollars each to “manage and provide shelter and homeless services,” according to the agenda. Austin Area Urban League will receive a little over $4 million a year, and Family Endeavors, Inc. will receive $3.45 million a year.
The contracts go into effect March 1 and will last for 13 months, with the option for four 12-month extensions.
In total, if the city were to extend the agreements for the full five years, it will cost about $37.2 million.
