Although I’m certain most or all of city and council staff and the Austin city council members remain hard at work for tomorrow’s Budget Adoption Reading of the Austin City Council, evidently posting to the council message board is over for Tuesday August 12th. You can read the Council Message Board as you wish for the changes but I will focus on homelessness prevention in the Fuentes, Velasquez, Vela, Alter subquorum. I especially call your attention to the public testimony of Jo Kathryn Quinn, President and CEO of Caritas of Austin at 11:06am, August 6, 2024, although I would much prefer you watch the entire short video segment. There is no cheaper avoidance of homelessness than preventing it, as you will hear for yourself.
Further explanation is useful and you will find it in the video below of the June 5, 2024 public testimony to the Public Health Committee. Caritas is the lead agency in the Best Single Source Plus Collaborative.
Notwithstanding whatever results from the the adoption of a budget subject to voter approval next November I have earlier this year made the decision to “tax” myself for homelessness prevention. I remember long ago spontaneously apologizing on two different occasions in council chambers to Ms. Quinn about my decision based on my lower post-retirement income to stop donating to Caritas and continue our donations to Foundation Communities*. Since my post-retirement income hasn’t significantly increased I have been warning people this year as my various subscriptions come due that this year might be the last of my support, mostly for local news, in order to add back support for homelessness prevention.
*You can check my earlier posts and you will find that my spouse and I have been funding the much more expensive permanent supportive housing furnished by Foundation Communites for quite a while. That will continue.