Temporary emergency homeless shelter extends stay at Marshalling Yard

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin’s temporary emergency homeless shelter at the Marshalling Yard plans to extend its operations, after homeless services there were set to stop next year.

The Homeless Strategy Office went in front of the Public Health Committee Wednesday to show how the emergency shelter has been performing since it opened through October of this year.

"As many of you know the Marshalling Yard Emergency Shelter opened in August of last year with the capacity to serve up to the 300 clients," says Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray.

The temporary shelter was converted from a warehouse storage for the Austin Convention Center to a multi-bed homeless shelter that was set to close in 2025.

"We paused intake across all shelters because we anticipated needing to move our Marshalling Yard clients to other shelters in the system now that we have identified a pathway to keep the Marshalling Yard open, we have initiated Intake at the shelters again," says Gray.

According to Gray, the shelter's exit rate has significantly improved from 15% to 30%.

"We look at all the clients who have exited each quarter and calculate which percentage of those clients exited positively versus exited negatively or to an unknown destination," says Gray.

Gray says out of close to 1,000 clients, nearly 200 have moved to permanent housing.

"We are going to come to council seeking the option to amend our contract with endeavors that authorization will allow us to keep the Marshlling Yard open. I also want to be very clear that we are going to continue searching for a permanent shelter," says Gray.

According to the Homeless Strategy Office, the city will provide funding if the contract is extended.

"The city council passed a resolution asking for the city manager to find funding and the city manager was able to do that and so we are extending the services at the Marshalling Yard", says Homeless Strategy Office Program Manager Greg McCormack.

Gray says there is also an update and improvements to the intake process and the shelters are up and running.

"Community members can self-refer into Arch and 8th street, but I want to be clear that these are not walk-up shelters, it is not walk-up beds," says Gray.

Gray says those seeking shelter would have to contact Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center to be placed on a waitlist. 

The Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center is currently being sued by Attorney General Ken Paxton following claims that it’s the center of crime in a South Austin neighborhood. Paxton is asking for operations to temporarily stop at the center. 

Operations are still continuing and now in collaboration with the temporary shelter. That waitlist will close at 200 people and reopen when it is down to 50 people.

There will be another meeting held with the city on December 12th to determine if the contract will be extended by Family Endeavors.