AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council has voted to purchase and renovate a hotel that will be used as a shelter for survivors of family violence. The new shelter will be operated by The SAFE Alliance, a longstanding human service agency that serves survivors of violence and abuse in Central Texas.
This is the first time in nearly 10 years that the City of Austin has added a new family violence shelter space, according to a press release from the city.
"As our community continues to grow, the need for shelter grows with it," said SAFE Co-CEO Julia Spann. "With this incredible commitment from the City of Austin, we will be able to provide more shelter space than ever before. And at this new shelter, SAFE will provide residents with case management, basic needs support (food, hygiene, etc.), children’s services, and many other resources that help families heal and leave shelter with a plan for a safer future."
SAFE’s current family violence shelter has only 30 rooms and operates with a constant waitlist. On average, about 37 people are on that waitlist on any given day.
Once the new hotel is fully renovated and staffed, an additional 50 rooms of shelter will be available for survivors of family violence, thereby more than doubling the space in SAFE’s current shelter.
"This purchase adds new family violence shelter beds in Austin for the first time in more than a decade – this is a long time coming," said Austin City Council Member Greg Casar. "We must get families and children off of the waiting list, and into a safer place in our community. This is a true investment in public safety."
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, SAFE has received record-breaking call volumes. In October of this year, the SAFEline received 2,394 contacts—the most in SAFE’s 45-plus year history.
Of those contacts, more than 80% were family violence-related.
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