City names new homelessness czar

After an exhaustive search “to find the right candidate who not only has extensive experience in working with programs and organizations to help the homeless, but also a drive to work with city leaders to coordinate the city’s homeless response activities with multiple departments and community organizations,” City Manager Spencer Cronk has named Lori Pampilo Harris as the city’s new Homeless Strategy Officer. Harris replaces Veronica Briseño, who has temporarily filled the role since March. Harris, who starts her new role Sept. 9, has a wide-ranging background working on homelessness issues from many angles. Her most recent position was as senior adviser on homelessness and social services for the city of Orlando, where she reduced homelessness by 23.6 percent in one year, according to Cronk’s news release about the hire. Prior to that, she worked for Habitat for Humanity International, holding various leadership roles for nearly 14 years, including spending four years in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. “I am honored to serve the city of Austin, with homelessness being its top priority,” Harris said in the release. “Creating a comprehensive plan in which the public, private, philanthropic and local homeless providers are working together to achieve transformational results is critical. The city of Austin is willing to take a fresh look, with hopeful eyes, at one of our most intractable issues, homelessness. We want the discussions and strategy to be about ending homelessness for our most vulnerable community members, not just coping with homelessness.”