AUSTIN, Texas — There are nine homeless shelters in Austin, but city leaders say that isn't enough.
According to City of Austin Homeless Strategy Officer Dianna Grey, Austin is now on track to need 1,000 more beds by the year 2025.
Grey said that on any given night, there is one shelter bed for every five people experiencing homelessness.
The City has already done a few things to provide some relief, including restoring capacity at the downtown shelter formerly operated by the Salvation Army.
The Northbridge Shelter recently expanded rooms to double occupancy, and crews are in the process of doing the same thing at Southbridge. The Esperanza Community is in the process of creating micro-shelters at its site as well.
This Thursday, the Austin City Council could allow negotiation on an agreement to operate a temporary homeless shelter at Marshalling Yard in southeast Austin. But despite these efforts, Grey said more still needs to be done to have a fully functioning system by 2025.
"I think it's important also that that ideally functioning system is really predicated on having sufficient resources across the board in permanent housing, in prevention, etc., so that we are decreasing the number of people who are just sitting waiting for housing," Grey said.
Grey noted that most of the shelter resources are located along the Interstate 35 corridor downtown. Despite this, there are still large homeless populations on the south and northwest sides of town.
Grey added that location needs to be taken into account when considering future permanent solutions.