More than 24K people sought resources for homelessness in Austin last year, report says

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A new report, required annually by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, gives an extensive look at homelessness trends in the Austin area and what gaps still exist in resources.

Here are some highlights:

• More people exited homelessness in 2023 than the year prior by about 50%. That's roughly 3,000 people who are no longer experiencing homelessness.
• It also showed an increase in the number of people seeking help. More than 8,000 people sought homelessness services for the first time in 2023, up 72% from 2022.
• Service agencies in Austin provided resources to more than 24,3000 people. That's a 60% increase from 2022, although the report noted that an increase in street outreach efforts and better system interventions may have contributed to this data.
• The report also found Black Austinites are six times more likely to experience homelessness than white Austinites.

As for how to address the issue of homelessness, it's something the City of Austin discussed extensively during its budget process. The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) estimates the following will be needed over the next decade:

• 5,000 new permanent supportive housing units (1,200 are already in the pipeline, according to ECHO). Those units are not only a permanent place to live but include wrap-around services like mental health and substance use treatment
• 600 new emergency shelter beds
• 1,700 new rapid rehousing slots. Rapid rehousing is essentially rental help that helps keep people off the streets or pulls people from homelessness into units

Austin's Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray has explained the overall system needs like this:

"I just think big picture, when you think of a homeless response system it's almost like a health care system, right? You think about kind of hospitals and how you have preventative care, emergency rooms and then inpatient care and our homelessness response system is designed much like that."

ECHO estimates more than 6,300 people experience homelessness in Austin on any given day.