Concerns grow over homeless activity near south Austin elementary school

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Joann Sisson has two kids at Joslin Elementary School in south Austin.

"A pre-K and a fourth grader," she said.

She worries about what's across the road.

"Kids seeing things they just shouldn't be seeing so young," Sisson said.

Any given day, you'll see crowds of people experiencing homelessness outside of the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center, which sits in view of Joslin Elementary on the other side of Redd Street. The center officers mental health and addiction services as well as day-to-day needs like showers, food coffee and clothes.

"While we're very grateful for what they're doing, it's just the proximity," Sisson said.

We can't tell the story about Sisson's - and other neighbors' - concerns, without telling the story of Mark Hilbelink, Sunrise's executive director, and the people he works with.

Watch this story on KXAN News at 5 p.m.

Tensions rise over homelessness in south Austin neighborhood after SWAT incident

In March, the Austin Police Department (APD) said a homeowner called 911 after finding a naked man inside her home on Merle Drive, which is a couple of blocks away from Joslin and Sunrise.

Police confirmed with KXAN the man accused of entering the house is part of the homeless community.

According to an arrest affidavit, the woman who called 911 after she found him was "very scared" and "feared for life," and jumped out of a window to get away.

Sisson said this incident put Joslin on a "secure" hold.

"As a parent trying to come to pick up your pre-K kid and your fourth grader, it was just very alarming and upsetting," she said.

'Thank you for everything,' Sunrise's efforts an 'asset' in the community

Mark Hilbelink at Sunrise knows most of the people who walk through his door by name, and he knows their stories.

"Thank you for everything," one of his clients said as Hilbelink walked by. She told Hilbelink she was heading out of town to stay with a family member.

"Homelessness is a whole person trauma," he said.

According to the center's website, staff helped nearly 11,000 clients last year, served almost 80,000 meals and answered about 30,000 hotline calls.

"If you can intervene with someone in their first 30 days of becoming homeless, they oftentimes don’t fall into the same chronic drug use, mental health issues," Hilbelink said. "They don’t fall into the violence that comes with people experiencing homelessness."

Just as Sisson recognizes the work Hilbelink does at Sunrise, he recognizes neighbors' concerns.

When KXAN asked him about public safety concerns, he said "we've worked really hard on that. Part of the way we've worked on that is to try to connect people to other partners. And people who are stepping over the line and doing anything they're not supposed to and we have evidence of that, we make an attempt not to serve them."

This neighborhood is in Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter's district.

"Sunrise is such an asset, and also a really difficult element of the community as well," Alter said. "They are doing amazing work, they stayed open through the pandemic when a bunch of other service providers didn’t."

He said his office receives continuous complaints about homeless activity in the neighborhood.

According to 311 data, calls related to "homeless matters" in the area are up from last year. In 2023, 311 received 30 calls for "transient, squatter and/or drug" concerns. That number is already up to 47 for the first five months of this year.

"We need more Sunrises around the city so the neighborhood like the one right there at Western Trails isn’t experiencing all of the traffic," Alter said.

The council member said Sunrise is working on another site in north Austin to help with that. He adds that this challenge doesn't all fall on the center, which Alter said fills gaps the city sometimes can't.

Alter said Austin's homelessness system, at present, is too small compared to the homeless community.

Hilbelink said that's how Sunrise got into this space. Before the homeless population spiked in Austin, Hilbelink said Sunrise solely functioned as Sunrise Community Church. While still operating as a worship space, the facility's title grew to "homeless navigation center," when Hilbelink and staff noticed a need in the community.

"As a community, we just don’t have enough resources for the amount of people that we have," Hilbelink said. "The easiest answer to what solves homelessness is homes."

No matter what the solution is, Sisson said she just wants to see one.

"We are begging at this point for some change to happen," she said.

Alter and other city council members are holding a meeting to address homelessness Thursday morning. KXAN will have a crew there and provide updates Thursday afternoon.