Austinites Raise Concerns Over Proposed Homeless Navigation Center

Foxx Long, who is homeless, walks through a camp on Bluff Springs Road Thursday January 9, 2025, when the temperature was in the upper 30s after receiving hot soup from mobile outreach workers with Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center.

Jay Janner/American-Statesman

Austin residents who live near a proposed new homeless navigation center are raising concerns about its impact on their neighborhood.

The City of Austin has identified 2401 S. Interstate 35 Frontage Road as the potential site for the new city-run center. The City Council will vote on purchasing the property, a former motorcycle dealership that is currently leased to a gaming lounge, when the council meets this Thursday.

Council members and David Gray, the city's homeless strategy officer, are holding multiple community meetings with residents in the neighborhood leading up to this week's meeting. The homeless navigation center would be a centralized place for people to receive access to referral services, housing resources and crisis response services.

Some navigation centers in Austin are operated by faith-based groups, including the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center on Menchaca Road in South Austin. That facility drew controversy last year when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the center, alleging it operated as a common nuisance tied to drug use and criminal activity.

“The demand for navigation services, frankly, is exceeding capacity of our privately funded faith-based organizations here in our community,” Gray told residents in a community meeting Thursday night.

City officials emphasize the proposed center would differ from facilities like Sunrise since it would be operated by the city.

Gray emphasized the need for services in parts of the city easily accessible to those in need, which led the city to choose the new location in the East Oltorf area.

“There’s high rates of evictions in this community and we want to make sure we are able to bring a stabilizing resource so that families are not getting displaced,” Gray said as he spoke to concerned residents.

Some East Oltorf residents say their neighborhood already struggles with slow police response times and ongoing crime, and could face an additional strain if another homeless service moves in.

“We're already a vulnerable neighborhood,” said Ashley Pound, who has lived in the East Oltorf neighborhood since 2020. “There's already a high concentration of crime. There's a high concentration of drug activity. There are some unhoused people, for sure, but I think that this facility will bring in a lot more unhoused people that might not be in this area.”

Mary Fealkoff, president of the South River City Citizens Neighborhood Association, also worries about the center’s impact on the neighborhood.

“I just think right now we should focus on helping the people that we have in our community instead of overwhelming the community,” Fealkoff said.

Pound and Fealkoff also expressed concern over the proposed location’s proximity to schools and safety concerns for children who walk to Travis Early College High School.

“I'm hoping that there could be a real conversation over delaying this vote to spend our tax dollars on this property until we can actually determine if it's a suitable location for the facility,” Pound added.

Gray said the vote cannot be delayed because the city is in the middle of a good faith purchase agreement deadline this Thursday. He said the city will continue conversations with the community about the vendor and specific site services.

Council member Zohaib "Zo" Qadri, who represents District 9, said his office is still working through their own questions with city staff.

“While I want to get to a place where I can support this, if a vote were held today, I would not be able to do so,” he said in a statement to the Austin American-Statesman Wednesday. “Homelessness has been a priority for me since day one, and I want to ensure any path forward reflects lessons learned and supports both housed and unhoused neighbors with transparency and accountability.”