Austin's newly renovated shelter opens, hopes to fill beds by Christmas

AUSTIN, Texas - The former Salvation Army Shelter on Eighth Street will open on Thursday, Dec. 21, as a city-run homeless shelter. The newly renovated Eighth Street Shelter hopes to fill all its beds by Christmas.

Director of Building Services Darrell Alexander says the Eighth Street Shelter is a new and improved, renovated space. It took around $433,000 to upgrade the facility.

"Make sure we've got heat, a h-vac, running water, and those types of things. We had to get those up to a certain standard before we could bring anyone in here safely," said Alexander.

Right now, the plan is to house 65 homeless people at this shelter who are women and transgender. The goal is to up that number to 150 by March 2024.

"Folks are coming into a shelter with a lot of different needs. We have folks who are coming in who are escaping domestic violence situations. We have folks who maybe recently lost their home or their apartment and are now sleeping under a bridge. We have folks who are trying to navigate a substance-use disorder or maybe a mental health challenge," said David Gray, City of Austin Homeless Strategy Officer.

In order to accommodate the number of beds, a majority of the rooms are double occupancy except for a few single rooms for special needs clients, and rooms originally used for office space were transformed into extra bedrooms.

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There is a meeting room and also a cafeteria where three meals will be served per day.

Gray says the average stay at a homeless shelter in Austin ranges from 60 days to 6 months.

Currently, Gray says there is only 1 shelter bed for every 5 homeless persons in the City of Austin. He says reopening this shelter will aid in Austin's growing homeless crisis.

"We're excited to give people a place where they can come in and call home," he said.

The Eighth Street Shelter will be a referral-based shelter. To make a referral, reach out to the Homeless Outreach Street Team.