City wins grant to combat homelessness

On Thursday, Austin, along with six other cities across the world, earned a $1.5 million grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Team program. For up to three years, the $500,000 payout will help Mayor Steve Adler and City Council achieve their goal of finding housing for the more than 2,000 Austinites in need of it. One star on the city’s resume was the 2016 Homelessness Outreach Street Team pilot program – which had already been renewed by Council to return in 2017. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the program’s founder, stressed the importance of innovation at the local level to improve “critical services that people depend on,” in a press release on Thursday. Other cities on the list include Be’er Sheva in Israel, Toronto, Baltimore, and Durham, North Carolina.