AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler, Travis County Judge Andy Brown, Austin City Council members and other community housing advocates announced a plan to create more than 2,100 permanent housing units over the next three years.
It's all part of a community goal to end homelessness.
Since 2015, both Austin and Travis County have been working to make historic investments in the community's supportive housing supply, leaders said.
"From the very beginning of my tenure as mayor, we have known that any effective strategy to end homelessness needed to include dramatically increasing our community’s supply of permanent supportive housing units," said Mayor Adler. "The 10-1 Council has diligently worked to increase that supply from a mere 37 units to having 2,100 units by 2024. Housing is the way to end homelessness and tenting. The work being done now and for the last several years is the transformative change our community has demanded."
Other groups such as the Housing Authority of the City of Austin and Ending Community Homelessness Coalition also attended the event.
"As minimum wage and salaries remain the same while rent & selling home prices hit historic high numbers in our community, housing is the largest challenge facing our community," added Judge Brown. "Housing is a civil rights and public safety issue. Housing keeps families together. With more housing, our community will be even more safe, healthy, diverse, and a better place to live for us all. We look forward to continuing this work with all our city and community partners."
Local leaders are also working toward a goal of housing 3,000 people over the next three years. Last week, officials announced that they have hit 78% of their $515 million fundraising goal.
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