Council to meet today, continuing discussion on homelessness

A special called Austin City Council meeting will look at issues related to homelessness at 2 p.m. today. The meeting was pitched as a way to continue Council’s discussion on plans to allocate American Rescue Plan funds toward the issue, and on Thursday, Council members also decided it would be a good opportunity to talk about sanctioned encampments in the city. A preliminary list of 45 potential campsites released in May was met with criticism from Council and public, and city staffers have asked for more time and a clearer set of guidelines from Council. In terms of the ARP money, while Council has indicated its hope that a large portion of the $143.6 million could be used to help fund permanent supportive housing, those numbers are not yet nailed down, and how the funding interacts with other resources remains “extremely confusing,” as Council Member Alison Alter noted at Thursday’s meeting.