City explains Austin Street lease terms for emergency sheltering; contract up to $1 million annually

Kevin Oden, director of Emergency Management and Crisis Response, explained terms of a lease with Austin Street that allows city use of an overflow shelter building on short notice when the facility is available.

Oden said the agreement includes an annual lease cost of $10,000 per month for keeping the building available and a service-capacity budget of up to $900,000 for shelter operations billed per night; the total not-to-exceed amount in the contract is $1,000,000. He said the contract does not obligate full-year spending — actual charges depend on activation and usage — and historically the facility is used for winter-weather sheltering.

Council members asked whether activation criteria had changed; Oden said the city is keeping previous thresholds (e.g., sustained low temperatures and precipitation windows established under prior OHS practice) and that the city typically uses the building for winter shelter activations but may use it for other sheltering as needed. The Chair and staff said the city's neighborhood-leader network and park rangers may help identify sites and outreach for future holiday or event-related deployments.