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Posted
On 10/27/2025 at 6:30 PM, Eskimohorn said:


Plenty of blame to be shared, including city management and police.

Name one major city “solving” homelessness. This is a regional, state, and national crisis. Hell, we have private and county prisons sending vulnerable pops to Austin and have been for decades. Cuts in public housing and hospitals have had a huge effect. As have our self-started opioid epidemic and policies attacking our middle class.

Stop talking about things you dont know anything about and focus on expanding Pflugerville’s strip centers and smoke shops.

Dallas.

I mean, before the One Big Beautiful Bill cut the funding the city was using to address homelessness.  But Dallas actually had a very successful program to address homelessness.  

And before that, Houston developed a really good program.  It's similar to what Dallas was doing.  Essentially, you target a homeless camp and send in police, santitation, and social workers in a single sweep.  You take the people to a temporary center for processing, where they stay for 72 hours.  During that 72 hours, the city identifies what they need.  Some just need a call to a family member who takes them in.  Other people need serious mental-health services.  Anyone still there after 72 hours gets sent over to a longer-term facility that gives them an apartment for some amount of time (I think it's six months), where there are various social services available.  The end result was that something like 90% of the people left before six months, having found permanent housing (often with family who didn't have the first clue that they were homeless).

Anyway--there is a formula for successfully addressing homelessness.  Cities that are pretty close by have implemented it.  It's not rocket surgery.  We just refuse to do it.

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
Dallas.
I mean, before the One Big Beautiful Bill cut the funding the city was using to address homelessness.  But Dallas actually had a very successful program to address homelessness.  
And before that, Houston developed a really good program.  It's similar to what Dallas was doing.  Essentially, you target a homeless camp and send in police, santitation, and social workers in a single sweep.  You take the people to a temporary center for processing, where they stay for 72 hours.  During that 72 hours, the city identifies what they need.  Some just need a call to a family member who takes them in.  Other people need serious mental-health services.  Anyone still there after 72 hours gets sent over to a longer-term facility that gives them an apartment for some amount of time (I think it's six months), where there are various social services available.  The end result was that something like 90% of the people left before six months, having found permanent housing (often with family who didn't have the first clue that they were homeless).
Anyway--there is a formula for successfully addressing homelessness.  Cities that are pretty close by have implemented it.  It's not rocket surgery.  We just refuse to do it.
Pretty sure a lot of their "solution" was buying them a bus ticket to Austin. Not sure Austin can use that strategy.
Posted
23 minutes ago, Modessit said:
3 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:
Dallas.
I mean, before the One Big Beautiful Bill cut the funding the city was using to address homelessness.  But Dallas actually had a very successful program to address homelessness.  
And before that, Houston developed a really good program.  It's similar to what Dallas was doing.  Essentially, you target a homeless camp and send in police, santitation, and social workers in a single sweep.  You take the people to a temporary center for processing, where they stay for 72 hours.  During that 72 hours, the city identifies what they need.  Some just need a call to a family member who takes them in.  Other people need serious mental-health services.  Anyone still there after 72 hours gets sent over to a longer-term facility that gives them an apartment for some amount of time (I think it's six months), where there are various social services available.  The end result was that something like 90% of the people left before six months, having found permanent housing (often with family who didn't have the first clue that they were homeless).
Anyway--there is a formula for successfully addressing homelessness.  Cities that are pretty close by have implemented it.  It's not rocket surgery.  We just refuse to do it.

Pretty sure a lot of their "solution" was buying them a bus ticket to Austin. Not sure Austin can use that strategy.

Oh, I don't know.  I can absolutely see our leadership deciding that we should give homeless people in Austin a bus ticket to Austin.

Posted
3 hours ago, Deej said:

I'm impressed, I would have assumed that most phone calls to the families would end more like this...

 

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I kind of would've, too.  But I talked to the guy in Houston who was in charge of their program and he had some really interesting insight on that. 

A lot of them fell out of touch with family not because of any conscious desire on the part of the family.  Instead, it was more often at the initiative of the person who eventually fell into homelessness.  Without a home or a job, there was no physical place to find them.  And very often, the homeless person was too ashamed about their circumstance to answer a call on their cell phone (if they were able to retain that).

It's only when a social worker gets involved and convinces them to make that call that they get over that shame and reach out to their family.  And in the vast majority of cases, the family is (1) relieved that they're alive and ok and (2) willing and eager to help.

17 minutes ago, Modessit said:
3 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:
Dallas.
I mean, before the One Big Beautiful Bill cut the funding the city was using to address homelessness.  But Dallas actually had a very successful program to address homelessness.  
And before that, Houston developed a really good program.  It's similar to what Dallas was doing.  Essentially, you target a homeless camp and send in police, santitation, and social workers in a single sweep.  You take the people to a temporary center for processing, where they stay for 72 hours.  During that 72 hours, the city identifies what they need.  Some just need a call to a family member who takes them in.  Other people need serious mental-health services.  Anyone still there after 72 hours gets sent over to a longer-term facility that gives them an apartment for some amount of time (I think it's six months), where there are various social services available.  The end result was that something like 90% of the people left before six months, having found permanent housing (often with family who didn't have the first clue that they were homeless).
Anyway--there is a formula for successfully addressing homelessness.  Cities that are pretty close by have implemented it.  It's not rocket surgery.  We just refuse to do it.

Pretty sure a lot of their "solution" was buying them a bus ticket to Austin. Not sure Austin can use that strategy.

That's Williamson County's solution, for sure.

I don't remember the specifics, but I think Houston will buy a bus ticket if there is a family member in the destination willing to receive them.  But they're not just buying a ticket to some random city (whether it be Austin or San Francisco).

Posted
Pretty sure a lot of their "solution" was buying them a bus ticket to Austin. Not sure Austin can use that strategy.

Yeah one Houston tactic was to relocate them to the burbs and they just went back to their hide-holes when funding dried up.

Seems what Houston is doing is what you can do with a police that doesnt quietly quit. But thats a churn strategy, hopefully you help the ones you can faster than others migrate in.

Austin does have intervention programs for short term homeless.

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