100 new homes for the homeless

The population of Camp Esperanza, the community for people exiting homelessness near the intersection of US-183 and SH 71, is set to double next month t0 200.

This is great news, of course, but it's not great enough for the average Austinite to appreciate. It will take many years of similar instances of progress before the typical taxpayer will conclude that the situation is improving.

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At a recent meeting of the Council Public Health Committee, TOOF Executive Director Elizabeth Baker said the former TxDOT lot aims to be home to 525 private cabins (and people) by 2029.

The 100 new units opening next month have been in the works for a long time and were funded by a mix of private philanthropy and city and county funds. The additional 325 units coming in three years are thanks to $48.4 million of federal funds from the American Rescue Plan that were awarded by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

(It annoys me how often the state of Texas gets credit for helping the homeless when usually all that is happening is the state is distributing federal funds that it cannot legally spend on anything else)

What's cool about Esperanza is that it offers people shelter, privacy and security at a far lower cost than an apartment unit, making it easier to scale. It also offers a number of on-site work opportunities and job training programs, including certifications for trades such as HVAC and auto repair.

Congregate shelters like the ARCH or the Marshaling Yard are a necessary part of the homelessness response. But the belief, popular in some corners of the political world, that the solution to homelessness is simply more shelter beds, is incorrect.

The fact is that a lot of people would prefer to sleep alone in the woods than in a room full of dozens of other strangers in a congregate shelter. I've never been homeless myself but it's not hard for me to understand that.

The cabins at Esperanza give people the peace of mind and dignity that comes from personal space and a locked door. It's not supposed to be a permanent solution — the average stay last year was eight months — but it is at least a viable foundation on which to build a path to independent living than a cot in a warehouse.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of people who spend time at Esperanza and then return to street homelessness. Baker told the committee that of the 209 people served last year, 58% had "positive exits." That's still a far better success rate than the shelters.

Jeff Bowen enters District 8 race

The race for City Council District 8 in Southwest Austin is getting interesting.

The latest entrant is Jeffery Bowen, president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council. You might recall that Bowen also ran for mayor in 2024 and finished in 4th place with 8% of the vote.

For what it's worth, however, he performed better in his home district, drawing between 10-14% in D8 precincts.

Meanwhile, incumbent Paige Ellis tells me that she is "cruising" in her effort to collect the approximately 3,400 signatures she needs to run for a third term, although she didn't specify how many she has so far.

Getting that many signatures by the filing deadline on Aug. 17 will require a major canvassing effort. Kathie Tovo, the only Council member who has done such a thing in the 10-1 era, described it as very difficult even with the help of dozens of volunteers and paid canvassers.

And then of course there is Selena Xie, the politically progressive former president of the Austin EMS Association.

In the most recent campaign finance filings, Xie had $75k and Ellis had $100k on hand.

District 8 is one of Austin's more conservative districts, but it's only conservative by Austin standards. In what is expected to be a strong Democratic election year, Bowen is not well-positioned to perform well against two Democratic women candidates.

I'm sure Bowen will point out that both Xie and Ellis backed Prop Q, which only got 25% in D8.

Council races are nonpartisan and Bowen is not campaigning as a Republican, but he certainly codes as a conservative. Worse, he's a man, which has become a major handicap in down ballot races in Travis County. He just isn't making any effort to appear friendly to liberals. The vibe is 100% get-off-my-lawn.

To his credit, Bowen clearly did everything on his campaign website himself. There is no way a consultant played any role in the design or prose. And unless he specifically instructed it to write with "Facebook boomer stream-of-consciousness energy," I don't think AI played any role either.

Speaking of AI, I certainly believe Bowen stands a better shot than Daniel Hudsky, another declared candidate whose Twitter account appears to post automated updates from his extensive travels in South America with (inaccurate) landscape descriptions:

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