Austin's Next Shot at Ending Homelessness

[TexasTowelie]

Thanks to an infusion of philanthropic cash, the city and its iTeam embark on a new effort


"It didn't used to be like this," says Judy, who last lived on the street back in the Eighties. "I was having a grand adventure being homeless, and I was having fun and had guys taking care of me. My significant other at the time didn't think rent was an important thing." He was also using heroin, and eventually Judy and her 18-month-old baby left for a year or so in the shelter-and-services system of the early Nineties, and then luckily got into housing via Section 8 that she's been in for 24 years. But now, "new managers have taken over, we're seeing the regentrification again, and I'm not secure at all. Now it's out of my hands, and I'm scared I'll be homeless again."

Judy met her current partner Bill, who has spent the last six years on the streets and in treatment and briefly in supportive housing, at the Homeless Navigation Center at Sunrise Community Church on Man­chaca Road. From Sunrise, the pair recently ventured into nearby encampments with a used suitcase from Goodwill filled with toiletries to distribute to people living there. "They were so excited and told [us] what they really needed – insect repellent, maybe mosquito netting, wipes," said Judy. Sadly, the suitcase was promptly stolen from Sunrise, but Judy is committed to trying again. "If it were just Bill and I, we'd still be just thinking about it. But it was these energetic kids who made it happen."

Those "energetic kids" are members of the iTeam, staffers and fellows in the city's Innovation Office, who since last fall, backed by a $1.25 million grant from Bloom­berg Philanthropies, have in Mayor Steve Adler's words "help[ed] us tackle problems in new ways that reflect who we are in Austin, and ... experiment with new ways to house the homeless." More specifically, in its own words, the iTeam "has worked with individuals and partners across the city of Austin to understand homelessness in Austin from the perspective of people living those experiences."

Defining its purpose as to "solve for homelessness," rooted in design and systems thinking, and taking many of its operational cues from the tech world, the iTeam doesn't shy away from disruption as a goal. Its work is well-timed in an Austin that is increasingly ready and willing to flip the script on homelessness. "In the short term, no one thing that any of us has done has solved the problem," says Ann Howard, executive director of the Ending Com­mun­i­ty Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). "But this is a moment in time where we're bringing together different technologies and sectors and systems, and I can say that nobody's working harder than Austin on this."

Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2018-08-24/austins-next-shot-at-ending-homelessness/