Ground broken on permanent supportive housing development in east Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Leaders broke ground Friday on a permanent supportive housing project that will eventually house people experiencing chronic homelessness.

Seabrook Square II, near Martin Luther King Jr. and Airport Boulevard, will add 60 permanent supportive housing units to east Austin. Those units will include wrap-around services like mental health care, substance use treatment and case management.

"Permanent supportive housing is really our most intense way to support individuals who have been homeless the longest and have the greatest needs," said David Gray, homeless strategy officer for the City of Austin.

But there aren't a lot of those units in our city, something both Travis County and Austin are investing significant funding into. According to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), there are 1,778 total permanent supportive housing units in our area. That number comes from the preliminary January 2024 Housing Inventory Count.

"We have a desperate need for permanent supportive housing units in our community. I'm also really excited because we're filling that gap. In addition to this project, we have other sites that are coming online with the goal of adding 400 new permanent supportive housing units this calendar year and an additional 300 permanent supportive housing units next calendar year," Gray said.

A major factor: Permanent supportive housing is expensive and requires long-term investment. Both the city and county contributed significant funding to Seabrook Square II.

The City of Austin contributed roughly $8 million -- around $5 million of that was from the Downtown Density Bonus Program, the rest coming from 2022 General Obligation Bonds and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

Travis County contributed more than $10 million. The county also tapped ARPA funding for the project.

Once up and running in 2026, the permanent supportive housing facility will be operated by Integral Care. Jeff Richardson, the CEO, said the longer people go without intensive care, the more expensive that care becomes.

"If we don't tackle this, the services that folks need become more intense and become more of a challenge for both the community and folks who need this level of care," Richardson said.

The first phase of Seabrook Square is an affordable housing community that will add more than 200 beds of affordable housing to the area. Leaders broke ground on that portion of the project earlier this year.