Homeless service providers are happy that the city and business community is stepping up.
Amy Price with the non-profit Front Steps, which runs the ARCH homeless Shelter, praises the city’s plan for buying an South Austin motel and turning it into an 80+ bed Homeless shelter. City staff explain it will be a low barrier shelter, meaning it will be open to more people.
Part of the motel shelter program would involve going door to door and asking the homeless staying there, if they are ready to receive services…which they don’t have to take part in. Critics and some residents believe this will mean some will just stay at the shelter indefinitely. Price retorts, “We’re all much more vigilant now, that we need to talk to every single person about there housing plan.” She continued, “And if their answer is ‘I’ll just stay here,’” she laughed, “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to keep talking because that’s not how its going to be.”
Price doesn’t believe most of the homeless will be looking at the shelter as a permanent solution because shelter life isn’t that great. “It is devoid of the charms that most people would like in a sleeping space.” She added, many homeless don’t like a regimented life and that’s another reason why service providers stay on message, while those in need are there, to work with the homeless about what comes next after the shelter.
City staffers told Austin City Council as they were pitching the motel plan, other similar programs around the country show homeless people staying in those shelters for about 90 days before they move on to more permanent solutions and have found their feet. Price agreed with that estimation, noting most people fresh on the street, just need a bit of help and time to recover and move on. City leaders and Homeless support groups say the longer a person is homeless, the longer it can take to help them heal from that.
(Photo:Shutterstock/Philip Arno Photography)
