City of Austin announces $2.2M available for homelessness prevention

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin's Homeless Strategy Office (HSO) is looking for partners to help address homelessness by keeping people out of it in the first place.

The city announced $2.2 million in funding available for groups to "provide rental assistance, financial assistance, and supportive services to households at risk of homelessness."

"We're looking for partners who can come in and they can help us identify households who are at risk of experiencing homelessness, even if the household themselves doesn't know that they're at risk, and they can help us stabilize those households before they lose their housing," Austin's Homeless Strategy Officer, David Gray, said.

The money for this program was set aside by Austin City Council during last year's budget process, according to Gray. It'll be one-time funding to allow the city to test out those homelessness prevention strategies, he said.

"We believe that after we have a chance to do this program, and run some analysis on the effectiveness of the program, that we'll be able to deepen our investment in homeless prevention moving forward," Gray said.

The city says it expects to award three contracts with that pool of money. Applications are due May 20. Contracts are expected to start August 1. Interested organizations can find more details and apply here.