The city of Austin, Texas, voted in 2020 to cut its police budget and is considering using some of the funds from the budget cuts to buy two hotels to house the homeless.
The Austin City Council plans to vote today on whether to purchase the two hotels and turn them into permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
If the measure passes, the city will spend about $16 million from its Housing and Planning Department’s general obligation bonds to acquire the two hotels and use some money from a $6.5 million fund cut from the police department’s budget, The Appeal reported.
The move will tackle two issues the city is dealing with — satisfying calls to defund the police and a homeless crisis. Nationwide, many cities are acting on calls to defund the police following protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
“In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, we made a significant cut to policing dollars and reinvested that in things like this,” said Council Member Gregorio Casar, who spearheaded the effort to cut police funding. Cesar sponsored an amendment in August that set aside $6.5 million in recurring funding to be used for permanent supportive housing and services. “That’s how we’re paying for this. That’s the only reason we’re able to do this,” he said.
The Austin City Council voted to immediately cut police funding by $20 million, with most of that money coming from canceling cadet classes, reducing overtime spending, and eliminating contracts for things like license plate readers. An additional $80 million will be cut from the police department’s budget by moving out certain civilian functions such as dispatch and the forensics lab, The Appeal reported.
The city also wants to tackle its homeless problem. Nearly 2,500 people were homeless in Austin at the start of 2020, according to the 2020 Point-in-Time Count.
Under the hotel purchase proposal, Austin would buy a property from Candlewood Suites in Northwest Austin and another property from Texas Bungalows Hotel & Suites, according to a memo sent to the mayor and council by the city’s Office of Real Estate Services and a homeless strategy officer with Austin Public Health.
“The city’s goal has traditionally been 100 permanent supportive housing units a year, and sometimes wouldn’t even reach that. And here we are in January and we’ll blast through the goal,” said Casar. “This is funding that was previously going to over-policing every single year and will now go to getting folks off the street.”
The city’s Homeless Services Division plans to negotiate contracts with nonprofit service providers Caritas of Austin and Integral Care to cover operating costs and set up wraparound services for residents, such as case management, support for mental health or substance use issues, workforce development programs, and job placement services.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
Austin has been examining its policing and police interact with Black people over the last few years — even before the BLM protests. It spent $282,040 for five consultants and $32,400 to a group of community members to review its policing policies.
“The combined $314,440 the city paid so far for racial inequity reviews of the Police Department will get much bigger. In December, another review is due from a New York firm that’s getting $1.3 million for it,” The Austin-American Statesman reported.
