Council hears pleas to pause sweep expansion as HSO outlines new encampment management teams

The Austin Homeless Strategy & Operations (HSO) office on May 5 described a restructured encampment management approach that would expand daily operations, add teams and create a public dashboard tracking outreach and abatement actions.

David Gray, HSO director, said the recommended model increases homeless encampment management (HEM) capacity from the prior structure to six teams operating five days a week: three geographically focused teams, one focused on roadways/transportation corridors, one on waterways and one dedicated to litter abatement. He described a six‑step encampment management process that emphasizes assessment, outreach and a 72‑hour notice posting prior to cleanup. "This is a process that we created with the goal of providing a consistent response across the city to help reduce health and safety risk at high priority sites," Gray said.

The office said outreach is intended to be a gatekeeper: if outreach teams identify a person who wants shelter but no bed is available, the cleanup will not proceed until a bed is found. HSO staff told council the system currently has limited available beds ("approximately 45 open beds" at the time of the briefing, with about 30 more expected to open soon) and that outreach teams will be afforded time to make placements. Staff also said the Violet Keep Safe storage program will expand and that HSO will work with partners on storage and navigation services.

HSO acknowledged the expansion will attach Austin Police Department officers to five of the teams primarily "to protect city staff" and to maintain order during operations. Lieutenant Marcus Johnson of APD said officers assigned to the operations are trained in mental‑health response and crisis intervention and emphasized that crews give an on‑scene notice window ("another 15 to 25 minute notice") for people to gather belongings.

During public comment, clinicians, social workers, service providers and people with lived experience urged council to pause the planned ramp‑up, arguing that sweeps routinely destroy documents and medications, disrupt medical care and separate people from route‑to‑housing opportunities. "Before any restart of encampment management, we need written reporting on the health outcomes and harm metrics, including lost medications, IDs, avoidable EMS transport, ED visits, and deaths linked to displacement," an internal medicine physician said during remote testimony. Multiple speakers cited prior short‑term initiatives that they said yielded relatively few shelter placements despite high cost.

Council members pressed staff on oversight and metrics, asking how APD training and accountability will be tracked, which metrics will appear on the public dashboard and how shelter bed management will be coordinated with outreach teams. HSO said it will track performance metrics including shelter and service acceptance rates, citations/arrests, repeat activity at sites after 30/60/90 days, response times and cost. HSO also stated it is developing a mobile application for field teams and an internal dashboard that will feed public‑facing information later in the year.

The presentation did not include legislation or a council vote; staff said the team will continue coordination with community partners and report regularly to council on outcomes and dashboard development.