City of Austin says Texas has referred one person to shelter during homeless camp sweeps

The video attached above aired on Oct. 27, 2025.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state would lean on the city of Austin to shelter people as the state continues homeless encampment sweeps in the capital city, Austin leaders say the state has only referred one person to city shelters.

During an early voting news conference Friday, Abbott fielded several questions from news outlets about sending state resources into Austin to clear homeless encampments.

One question KXAN has been asking the governor’s office: When the state comes to clear out homeless encampments, where are people being relocated?

During that news conference, the governor said the state will “defer to Austin for the locations that they want to send them” but also said the state has prepared “different locations in the event that Austin is unable to provide them.” Abbott did not specify where those backup locations were.

“As you all probably know and maybe you’ve reported, the city of Austin is stepping up to help address the locations and we will defer to them as long as the homeless are being removed from the encampments,” Abbott said. We have reported that the city of Austin offered to help Texas shelter people during encampment sweeps, as well as provide city resources.

"We can confirm that one individual referred to us by the State has been sheltered. To date, there has been no formal coordination from the State of Texas with the City of Austin regarding the Governor’s recently announced encampment management operations," a city spokesperson said Monday.