How does the city of Austin decide which homeless encampments to clear?

Yahoo

13-03-2025

AUSTIN (KXAN) — When deciding which homeless encampments to clear, the city of Austin ranks encampments based on metrics such as public safety and nearby critical infrastructure, according to Austin's Homeless Strategy Officer, David Gray.
The question was posed after the city of Austin relocated 32 people living in a homeless encampment in southeast Austin due to 'high wildfire risk.' The camp was near Ben White Boulevard and Montopolis Boulevard.
The Austin Fire Department responded to 35 fire-related calls at the location in 2024, determining that a 'major' fire in this area may affect essential services and critical infrastructure, a release from the city Wednesday said.
There's a 4-million-gallon water storage and pump facility, operated by Austin Water, as well as 'one of the largest federally qualified healthcare centers' that serves low-income residents near the encampment. A wildfire would force patients to evacuate and 'impact one of the most frequented walk-up healthcare access points in Austin-Travis County,' the city said.
So how does the city decide which homeless encampments to target?
According to Gray, some of the city's metrics include:
Public safety: Number of 911 calls, reports from public safety agencies (police, fire, EMS), signs of drugs use/drug manufacturing
Proximity: To schools, daycares and critical infrastructure like hospitals, water storage and energy sources
People: Are pregnant women or domestic violence survivors in encampments?
'So we have a number of metrics that we'll look at, and each of those metrics is assigned to weight. And the ones that rank the top are the ones that we prioritize,' Gray said.
When you see the city of Austin enter a homeless encampment and relocate individuals living in it to shelter, that's part of the city's Housing-Focused Encampment Assistance Link (HEAL) initiative.
'What we do is we go into an encampment, we create a by name list of all the people who are residing there, and then we move that entire community into shelter,' Gray said. 'And then once we move everybody, we do the process of cleaning and restoring that natural habitat and securing the site. And after we've done all that work, we then work with the Austin Police Department and other local law enforcement agencies to keep those areas clear.'
Without a place for the city of Austin to relocate people to, camp sweeps would likely result in people relocating to another encampment or later returning to the original camp. That's why Austin uses its bridge shelters to give people relocated by HEAL a place to get stable.
'Since HEAL started a couple of years ago, we've already served over 1,000 clients through this strategy, helping hundreds of people transition from our bridge shelters into permanent housing…It's a fundamental part for how we do encampment closures, especially for large sites like the one that we just closed,' Gray said.
Since the program started in 2021, the city has moved 1,024 people into shelter through HEAL. Camps that have been cleared as a result include:
A high flash flood risk area of the Country Club Creek watershed near the intersection of Wickersham Lane and East Riverside Drive
Riverside Meadows
Stephenson Nature Preserve
Springdale Neighborhood Park
Lorraine 'Grandma' Camacho Activity Center
The West Rundberg neighborhood near the areas of the North Austin YMCA and at Masterson Pass
You can find a full list of encampments targeted through the HEAL initiative from the city of Austin's Homeless Strategy Office here.
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