Public Health Committee (PHC) meeting Transcript – 3/8/2023 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/8/2023 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/8/2023 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [10:00:05 AM] All right. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. My name is Vanessa Fuentes, Austin city councilwoman for district two. I called to order this meeting of the Austin city council public health committee. The time is 10 A.M. On Wednesday, March 8th 2023. We are here in the city hall council chambers. I want to welcome everyone for our first public health committee meeting of this year. I am honored to serve his chair and to have my colleague, counselor of Alaska service vice chair welcome and thank you mayor for also serving on this committee. And we're also joined by counter members. Oh qadri, who is joining us for today's topic? So we have a lot to accomplish today and a lot of topics to cover. And so I want to lay out today's agenda, which includes first we're going to have public communications. Then we'll hop into approving minutes from the past two previous [10:01:06 AM] committee meetings. From there. Diana gray, our homelessness strategy officer will provide us a briefing on the latest issues related to homelessness, as well as an update regarding regarding the closure of the salvation Army shelter downtown. We also have here with us today. Representatives from salvation Army to answer questions so we'll bring them up to the podium. Hmm. From there, we'll move into a briefing led by director weeks regarding the Austin public library long range strategic plan, and from there, we will hold the remaining of our time together to brainstorm future agenda, meeting topics and items big. Thank you to our public health team, especially when he did Jackson, who is er, liaison to the committee and director Etienne Sturrup for all of your work and support and making today's committee meeting function so seamlessly are there any questions or comments on the agenda so far? All right. And also just want to thank Amelia [10:02:06 AM] cassettes with my team for her support on this committee. Now we'll have we'll welcome speakers from the community and I see that we have a number of speakers signed up. Clerk do you want me to call the speakers out? Or will someone with them. We can call the names out and I have a recipe voice. So please forgive me. If I mispronounce the name first speaker up is polenta. Talent. Request and thank you. Thank you for having us here from the Texas harm reduction alliance. I'm the organizing director and we have I know a number of residents here that are ready to testify as well. But we were hoping we could get an update about the city's conversations before we [10:03:08 AM] testify and have a moment to respond because it sounds like there have been conversations that were not privy to. Okay that sounds if that's ok with the committee will save public communication until after the update. Thank you. Thank you, Paula. Just to clarify you want each speaker three minutes. Yes, please. The next speaker. Miss Jackson. We're gonna move into the update provided by Diane agree, and then we'll take public communication right after , right after we hear from Salvation Army. Miss Diane agree . Good morning, chair Fuentes, and committee members very happy to be speaking to you for the first time as the newly constituted public health committee. So today, we'll be [10:04:09 AM] giving you an update. Pretty broad overview of some of the things that are happening in the homeless response space, and I think in particular, knowing that we have a couple of new members wanted to do that overview also to tee up the conversation about what some of your priorities will be for future meetings. So we can go ahead and bring up the slide deck. We can go ahead and move forward to the excellent, so just an overview of the homeless strategy division. The homeless strategy officer position was created in the fall of the of 2018 in the budget process. And they had several interim officers until January of 2020 when the division was created within Austin public health. It was also at that time that we had another interim officer of Allah Carmen, who is continues with the division today, and I [10:05:10 AM] came on board in January of 2021 . We have gradually staffed the division. At present, we have 12 regular full time equivalent staff people. And then about 15 temporary or grant funded staff people who have been critical and allowing us to run a shelter directly, which we anticipate being a temporary function and to handle the very significant contracting related to our arwa dollars going out into the community. And so you know, just in general, our our primary roles obviously are around policy and planning, making recommendations to council and leadership about strategies we can take to address this issue. We also play a very significant role in helping coordinate across departments there about 16 departments that are meaningful E involved in this in this work, and it's been really important to develop some infrastructure for that coordination. We serve as in [10:06:10 AM] many cases, the primary point of contact for the community both around concerns and collaboration in particular our relationship with the ending community homelessness coalition , which is the hud mandated continuum of care agency is a really key relationship. But many, many stakeholders and then finally, general communications and community engagement. We interact with, really a huge number of individual constituents as well as community groups, etcetera, to try to increase our responsiveness around this issue , knowing that it is of great concern and interest to many people. Next slide. I think that I want to touch briefly on our system, sort of the status of the population in Austin today a and how our system has functioned. Historically most recent estimates by echo and this is based on some statistical analysis. We will [10:07:12 AM] have a point in time count result here relatively soon as well, which is a physical census. But the statistic analysis indicates that we have over 4600 people experiencing homelessness on any given day in Austin about a little over 800 in shelter and 3800 plus unsheltered, so a huge issue and product predominantly unsheltered population. Our service providers historically have been able to re house between 1719 100 households per year in programming. Some folks self resolve, but in our funded programs that has been our historic number. We are hoping to markedly increase that this year and next year which will speak about in a moment, but the other piece to understand. Is it in those programs once people are re housed, the stability is pretty positive. Not everyone stays housed. But the our our numbers tell us that only about [10:08:14 AM] 12% of people house through a permanent housing program returned to homelessness within the next two years. Next slide. And so, you know, this has been an issue of scale. We haven't had enough services to meet the need, but we understand also that there's an interest in what the city's investment is in homelessness as well as what are other jurisdictional partners are investing. And so the first the first piece here gives our fiscal year fiscal 23 budget. Separated into the four major categories we track, prevention crisis response, which includes shelters and street outreach, housing stabilization. So that is rapid re housing and psh and I do want to be clear here. This is both capital and operational dollars so very significant capital investment, which of course, is an asset that our community will enjoy for many years to come. And then, finally , about almost $7 million on [10:09:14 AM] public space management that predominantly corresponds to the costs of cleanup. Through a our our public works, etcetera, as well as some of the staffing related to engaging with people experiencing homelessness, in part in watershed, etcetera. This does not include our money. But it does include other federal dollars that flow through the city annually in terms of how much of the effort around homelessness, the city funds, we are the largest single thunder for direct intervention and homelessness. You'll see the graph there below. I believe it is around 65% of the total. But we do have significant, investment at the federal, county and state levels, in particular the federal dollars come down through the continuum of care. There's the dollars that are largely coordinated by our homeless coalition and the other piece that is so critical [10:10:14 AM] . There are public housing authorities who have been setting aside vouchers. Well, go ahead to the next slide. So in order to scale the system and really what we hope to do is to resolve some of this. Many people who have been waiting for housing for so long. In early 21 , there was a summit to address unsheltered homelessness, which resulted in an initiative now known as finding home 80 X with the goal of re housing and additional people over our baseline. From 2022 to 2024. So those 3000 people that we hope to re house 1300 would be accommodated in new brick and mortar housing units and the other 1700 through, portable rental assistance in case management in private rental units. And this would be a accompanied by a variety of other funding streams that strengthen our system in areas like behavioral health benefits [10:11:15 AM] . Enrollment landlord engagement and, and employment, for example , so briefly have the table to the right that shows the high level of the overall investment plan, which was $515 million. Next slide. That is a very significant price tag and ambitious goal. When we started this process we had identified I think about 235 million toward that goal and that investment plan since then there's been significant progress made. We are at 89% of the goal right now, and that is, in part due to about $50 million in private money that has been invested as well as very significant direction of rp funds to this effort from both the city and the county. Next slide. So just to give a sense, an update on [10:12:17 AM] where we are in terms of dedicating the $106.7 million of American rescue plan act resources directed to homelessness. We are at about 74 million committed in contracts or to specific city staff, etcetera. Of the 107 million. I will say that there of the balance there which is I think 32 million. We have not received about 11.4 million from the feds, so we cannot commit that until it isn't hand. So we're well on our way spent much of last year in a series of aggressive solicitations. To move these dollars into the community to the service providers. Then dollars spent are relatively modest because those contracts were executed. Effective for the most part, October 1st. And so our service providers are ramping up now, and we should begin to see those dollars flow in a much more robust fashion over the coming [10:13:18 AM] months. Let's move forward. In terms of what we expect to get out of the particularly the social service contracts that we have we have secured through these dollars here you have the annual metrics of people to be served, rapid re housing over 3000 people street outreach, you know, serving 2600 people. And significant numbers across the other. The other service categories and I will say that this is one year metric. We do anticipate renewing these contracts for a second year of funding, so I don't know that these numbers would double but we will see an additional people served over the period. Next slide. I mentioned that under finding home 80 X. We had a very aggressive goal of creating additional units set aside for people exiting homelessness, and this has been especially important as our always tight [10:14:19 AM] rental market has further tightened. We've really needed to have dedicated units in order to get people into that housing . And so this shows the cumulative trajectory of the number of units we have had set aside. For direct referral through the coordinated entry system. That echo echo, administers, and that is essentially our referral system . So in 2021 we had south of foot 500 units set aside and through much of the funding that is coming through finding home 80 X. We expect to have ah, between 2024 2025 over 1500 units so we will triple our portfolio in a very short period of time and represents tremendous effort on the part of our community sponsors of these projects as well as the housing departments, both of the city and the county. Next slide. So I want to turn then from the permanent housing and long term housing resources to our [10:15:20 AM] response to the unsheltered population, which, as we have noted, is significant. And we have launched something, last fall called the homeless encampment management team. It was launched in, in we did the planning and the early 2022. We have 10 departments that are regularly involved in this structure. It is based on the incident command structure. Are used for emergency response. So we have a leadership team that is in charge of approving making decisions etcetera serves essentially as an executive group for decision making, and we have a planning section. We have an operations section and we have a policy section. And so , one of the pieces that was really important for us in terms of providing infrastructure for this work was developing a system to track encampments and their location, their population in the conditions there. We across departments, and many of the several landholding departments. We're all getting information. Complaints [10:16:20 AM] concerns, etcetera. And we did not have an infrastructure in place to really get a comprehensive look at the issue and make sure we weren't duplicating effort. So we have a mobile application that allows us to identify encampments and for assessments to be done in the field. We have roughly 40 criteria that look at public safety. They look at health issues for the occupants. A look at, proximity to public services and facilities or obstruction. Access to those with the idea that we really knowing that the need is extremely large. We need to be really clear and data driven about where we intervene in what order so we can prioritize the work. And get the best use of our city resources and staff to do that work. So this is now been, been operating for several months. With the formal launch. I will say that we were beta testing much of this for early last year. We are [10:17:23 AM] working on having a formal adoption of encampment response procedures. So when we clear an encampment, whether that is through hell, and we transfer people to shelter or it is enforcement that we have clarity about how that is done, and this is particularly important to ensure that we are in compliance with state law about the resources that are offered to people before enforcement occurs . We want to build out some of the functionality of the mobile application. I think one piece that lays before us is really streamlining those service requests. We have made some progress there. But as you can imagine, we receive reports of encampments through 311 through direct calls to the department's certainly to your offices that you pass along to us, and so we want to make sure that we can make that as efficient as possible. And then eventually we'd like to be able to track our resources and contract expenditures. Cross departmental E. This work is done through not [10:18:26 AM] only through direct staffing, but through several third party contracts that because of the funding sources are held by public works by our our in one case, awesome public health because it's with a nonprofit that employs people experiencing homelessness. In terms of unmet needs. I think there are a couple that are really key here that will, I think not be too much of a surprise to any of you. We have. I think last year experience that even with some increased resources for cleanup and debris removal, we spent down those contracts very quickly as we sped up the work, intervening and encampments and then obviously, in order to be able to do the best work here, we would be moving folks are offering them shelter. When an encampment is going to be resolved, and we simply need more places for people to go to be able to do that. There is a quick sort of workflow here about how we are approaching the [10:19:28 AM] work. You know, we get complaints or reports we send our staff into the field to do the assessment to prioritize the encampment and, usually send out outreach teams to those encampments that they are not already active there. At that point, we have really three primary options for response. One is ideally we can do hell in that encampment if it's a very high priority encampment, the second is that we can do some mitigation there. If for example , their significant fire risk their significant debris, we can hopefully mitigate some of those risks, and the third is straight enforcement. Of the camping, band both locally and at the state level. Acknowledging that when that does happen, typically , the result is we may resolve the issues in that location, but people tend to move without some place else to go to another [10:20:29 AM] location. And so we are then looking at a new encampment and have not, reduced the overall population of people experiencing homelessness. I will say that when enforcement occurs for the most part, it is met with voluntary compliance. So when law enforcement asked people to vacate an area they typically do. Because of that our number of citations is relatively modest. We have had 336 through the end of January since the rollout of the ordinances in August and September of 21. Next slide. So as I said, our preferred intervention is to be able to do the hell initiative or to carry out the hell initiative in an encampment and the hell initiative was was started and approved by council in early 2021. Essentially what it says is, we're going to look at the most dangerous encampments from a health and safety standpoint, we're going to select those encampments. Offer people immediate access to shelter as [10:21:30 AM] well as longer term resources for housing in case management to allow them to move out of that shelter into permanent housing. Since inception, we cleared our first encampment, and I believe June of 2021. We have moved for more than 470 people into shelter. Of that's it through 12 encampments. And at the time of this report, which was I believe is the end of January. 171 people permanently housed, of course, with many people still in shelter. We do have some attrition from shelter, which is, I think an ongoing effort the average time from the time they enter ship people enter shelter into housing move in. Has been increasing because of the market, so right now it's at about six months to get them into case management and work through finding a unit. We hope that will shorten as more of our brick and mortar units come online and were able to increase the referrals into existing housing. Do you wanna call out [10:22:34 AM] some of the impacts that we saw at Roy G Roig Guerrero park? Excuse me after we did heal. And just as a bit of context here, there was already in the, in 2021 encampment at Roig Guerrero or a couple of encampments is quite a large site but relatively modest in size. And so my understanding is 20 to 40 people, which is not small but spread out across the park. We then as we began to enforce the camping ban saw enforcement near ad and near parking Zaragoza, which is understandably you know, a priority for the community and along the Riverside drive corridor. And so we those places were cleared. But what resulted from those and other sources of an enforcement was really the creation of an extremely large encampment at Roig Guerrero park are estimates that were that we had between 121 150 people there. And really [10:23:35 AM] very difficult, very significant impacts on the encampment. Excuse me on the park and the surrounding neighborhood. We were able to do he'll there. Relocated almost 100. People from that encampment at once, essentially into bridge shelter , which is a very difficult thing to do to get all of that vacancy at one time and what the list on the right here shows you is the change in, reports or calls to a P D of three months pre and post hell, so we have saw very significant reports of public safety concerns. And for us, that is, evidence further evidence of hell really helping to resolve issues in areas we have not seen the same kinds of reductions when we go into an encampment, and there's simply enforcement next slide. So I [10:24:36 AM] want to talk a little bit about some of the things that are on the horizon for not only hs D but other city staff. And some of these are council directives . We have been asked to assess funding and legal options for retaining bridge shelter capacity and that is in relation to the planned conversion of the north north bridge shelter to permanent supportive housing. That was the initial plan for that facility and we had been using it temporarily. But there's a question now about how we retain that that bridge shelter capacity if and when conversion to psh happens. We have a council directive around human trafficking, particularly education for our service providers. We have been directed to complete and assessment and recommendations for our community wide emergency shelter system with recommendations around inclement weather as a subset of that work. Our housing [10:25:38 AM] and planning department has been asked to look broadly at the rental housing development assistance program and review whether there are ways within that funding stream to further incentivize and support units that are specifically set aside for this population, and we also have some direction around exploring options within the Austin civilian conservation corps. For using that vehicle not only for employment of people experiencing homelessness , but potentially for projects that would benefit organizations in our homeless response system. Along with those council directives. We still have significant funds to solicit of for darpa. We have an open rfp right now for targeted prevention services. We also have a directive from council will be re soliciting the arch and southbridge shelter contracts, which were awarded through an emergency process last year when the relationship with front steps came to a close. So lots of solicitation, [10:26:43 AM] which we'll do in partnership with the community based resources unit in Austin public health continue the work of the homeless encampment management team. As you may recall this year for cold weather shelter. We had kind of a hybrid model where our new vendor Austin area urban league really worked with the city staff in city facilities we expect next year for that to transition. Two sites that urban league has secured themselves and will operate more independently. And so we need to support some of that planning. We do want to have a concerted effort to engage faith based communities more directly and are also soliciting for, support with doing an overall communications plan for hst and around homelessness in general, some of our challenges which we know will turn to here in a moment. You know, in the market we have [10:27:43 AM] seen as I've mentioned, really difficult time finding units in the open market. This is both because of the tightness of the rental market and one of the things echo has signaled to us is that there is a lot of shift of ownership or transfer of ownership so they might have a relationship with a landlord or an owner. Property changes hands and they have to start over. Within the service provider portfolio. It is improving now, but they've had significant staff turnover in shortages, as many employers have over the course of the pandemic. And then I think in in the context of, a real crisis around the unsheltered population. We did have an announcement on February 17th. The downtown shelter was would be closed by salvation Army as of March, 15th. So we go to the next slide. I'll give it just a few points on the Salvation Army closure on our understanding of that and then [10:28:43 AM] major wreck line from the Salvation Army has joined us today to speak a bit about their process and answer questions. So as I mentioned the announcement was made February 17th announcing a March 15th closure date was a commitment to ensure client relocation and access to continuing services. Just a note that in contrast to some of our other shelters, this property is wholly owned by the salvation Army, having opened in 1988, so quite an aged building which was one of the challenges that Salvation Army has has cited as the part of the decision to close we currently had, as of this year capacity of 100, but that was significantly lower than the previous capacity when it was operating as a facility that housed both adults, singles and families. The capacity was 242 was reduced due to the [10:29:44 AM] pandemic and had not increased to full capacity since then. There's an additional safe sleep program that allows women to walk in on a particular night without necessarily having a set aside. Reserved bed there to allow for folks to respond to safety concerns, etcetera. So right now, the client population consists of single men and women. About half and half and I'm sure major recline can give us some more detail there. As I said the site did include families, pre 2019. They moved when the wrath Gaber center opened and I believe in January or February of 2020, all the families were moved to other facilities. So in terms of the city funding of the downtown shelter. Has been around $600,000 annually historically for fiscal year 23, it was increased to about a million dollars of both through an [10:30:45 AM] increase in or an allotment of rp funds and an increase in the homeless housing and housing services program through the state. We increase that amount from I believe about 250,000 to half a million. I will say that we have contracting staff here as well to answer specific contracting questions. And so the current status actually, I think we have a little bit of an update since this slide deck was submitted, as of Monday, we understood that there were 64 clients remaining in shelter. I believe as of yesterday, we were in the thirties to forties. Is that correct? I'm sure major can give us a specific number. We met with the major, on the 24th . I believe of February and at that time, Salvation Army asked . Us identified a point person for us to work with to support identifying potential relocation options that has been ongoing. And we will continue to do that, [10:31:47 AM] and I'm sure that will be a piece of our conversation today. And then I think, just knowing that contracting and legal review are underway to understand the disposition of the existing contracts for the downtown shelter. So with that, I will, see the podium to major wreck line. Allow him to speak to you, but we remain available for questions you might have. Thank you. Yes if we can have major recline, join us at the front colleagues. We're going to hear from representatives representatives from salvation Army and then take questions from our committee if you have any questions for miss Dianna gray regarding the other updates that she gave her on homelessness if we could save those till the end also want to acknowledge our colleague, council member Ryan alter has joined us. Thank you, major. Thank you, ma'am. In an email I sent to, Mr Littlefield and Ms gray last night, we explained to them that we are down now to about 32 clients still needed to be relocated. And that we have [10:32:47 AM] been working diligently with them to send some to other shelters. If that were something that they could be worked out. We have also found that some of them did have some homes they could go to, and we were able to help assistant and getting them back to their homes of reached out to other salvation armies in the state to see if they were willing to accept any of the clients if they were willing to go to these locations, the only one who had room is the Dallas Salvation Army, and we have identified a few of the clients who have indicated that they would go there. And we are still looking to, how's those that are left? As I said about 32 left, and working with the different organizations in town. Also understand, please, that there are some clients who have yet to get back to their case managers as we've asked them to, so it's hard to determine what their future looks like, because we haven't been able to speak with them. But we are moving towards this. And we've been in [10:33:50 AM] communication, with the mayor's office and with the city manager and we're looking at, what the immediate future holds and how we can make some adjustments if necessary, and what those adjustments will look like, but we will continue to, try to relocate. The clients. Thank you, major colleagues. Any questions? Do, mayor. Thank you very much, madam chair. Major. I want to use the word adjustments and one of the things I want to ask about is when you and I and others met and you indicated that you were going to announce the closure and just a couple of weeks and then closed within a month. As I pointed out in my letter to you yesterday, and I think you agree that that you indicated the your current clients would have their housing or shelter needs resolved by the army before you closed your [10:34:50 AM] facility. When you talk about adjustments, you're you're currently scheduled as a by your announcement to close in just a few days and seven days now. Is one of the adjustments that if you haven't been able to place your clients that you will extend the period of time that you remain open before you close , so that is a conversation we're having, the board of the Salvation Army will be having a conversation Friday morning. And that is the primary topic of that discussion. Yes sir. Okay to guarantee but it is a conversation well, I certainly hope that it's a it's a powerful conversation. Because of I think the Salvation Army should be committed to not closing its doors before it is properly addressed the needs of its clients. Of course. You and I have had that conversation before. And in my letter to you yesterday, which I believe is [10:35:51 AM] part of the reason we had so much activity yesterday. Yes including some positive activity. We need to. We need to address that. Another question is, will you be addressing with your board the ability for and again we've this has been mentioned in the past. But the ability for the city of Austin to utilize that building for needs related to those living homeless. While it's in. In the limbo of not being sold or to be sold in in that nature. So as we just heard that presentation, there is a continuing need for space and this would be an opportunity for although not operated by the Salvation Army, but operated by professionals so that we can meet the needs of others living homeless, that the Salvation Army would consider allowing the city to utilize [10:36:51 AM] that building for a period of time. Yes sir. We've had that conversation. We were expecting an mou and it hasn't hasn't gotten to my desk yet. It is something that, through the board. We have had that conversation. I would just remind you, sir, we are a Georgia corporation. So at the local level I have do not have the authority to sign it. I would have to process that, but we're certainly willing to introduce it to the corporation for them to make a decision on that, but well, we're we're certainly open to it, sir. Yes, sir. All right, I want to ask about and we spoke very briefly in the back, so I don't wanna surprise you with this, but but the idea that people are being sent to Dallas. I express to you that I have a negative, instinctive reaction to that, for a couple of reasons. One is that the idea that people have have have chosen officers are [10:37:52 AM] home to or their place to live, even though their circumstances may not be optimal. That we would. We would move people to another city because of a decision made to close the place where they are currently residing. Explain to me why it is that we're moving people to another city. We're asking the clients if they would be okay with that we are not mandated any of that. We're giving them certain options as they work through their case manager and one of the options is we do have a shelter that we can access. And in Dallas, if you wanted to go there, we could take you there. So it isn't a mandate it simply if they're willing to do that, we would be willing to take them there. Well I'm just gonna say that it's still bugs me. And the reason it bugs me is that, if tomorrow let's assume that the shoe was on the other [10:38:53 AM] foot. And the Salvation Army was not closing its doors in Austin . But if tomorrow I was told that other cities were moving people and taking up shelter space that maybe that is badly needed in Austin. I would want to have a conversation about that as well. So I'm not sure. Exactly how to address that other than maybe I'm not sure exactly how to address that other than to express that. This is one of the significant problems that I think was created by such a rapid closure of the facility. And I think it probably speaks to the need for the Salvation Army on things like the meeting is you're having on Friday when you're talking about when it would close when you actually close the doors or whether you're going to let the city of Boston new lies that building that it could be. It could definitely utilize. I would think that that would be one of the [10:39:53 AM] considerations you would place into this. On balance. Yes, sir. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, councilor qadri. Major, I guess I have a few questions for you at the first is, where would you know what is the transition plan for staff that's currently at the Salvation Army or other shelters. And then are you able to share where people who have been, I guess reassigned where they've gone. In reference to the clients or in reference to their clients. Yes, sir, the report allowed turned in yesterday. We have some that are going to different places here in Austin. We have, some who have left for an extended stay on their own. We've had some who just left the shelter period. We don't know where they went, which is not uncommon. One has asked to go to CNN, tonio. Five, moved into the front steps, six will be moved into independent housing. What's one in the safe [10:40:58 AM] ? These are the numbers that they gave me for the folks they spoke with yesterday. One has family and Wimberley that they want to go to one has family and Idaho that they want to go to. So we're working very closely with what? They're as we meet with a case manager. We're asking what they feel would be best for them, and this is what we've been able to work out with some of them where there's some folks that when they heard about the closure of the shelter kind of left without Joel having any sort of interaction with them. No. Okay so everyone that's left you guys had some direct and so what? The other part of that was we had asked him to meet with their case managers and we didn't get some responses at times so on when they came in that night, they found on their bed instructions for them to meet with their case managers and what that would look like and what time we would want them to meet their case managers so everyone know. So when I mean, I guess my intention of the question is that once a short term solution is found can the city connect with the former residents of the shelter to find them? Placement and you know, in a another shelter? Yeah we're we're still case managing. Now [10:41:58 AM] that is correct. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you major for joining us today and for providing an update. You know what? I guess the question I have is understanding from your perspective from salvation Army's perspective if you foresaw a closure. Why one? Why accept funding from the city? I think Diana Diana great testified or shared with us at a million, almost a million dollars was provided in funding on to Salvation Army for shelter , capacity and services. Why accept these dollars? Where do those dollars go? And then? Secondarily why did the residents just find out about this closure? It seems like the conversations if Salvation Army knew that disclosure is going to happen, why not engage with the city have conversations. With the city about the city. Leasing the facility. Purchasing the facility, you know, having a more coordinated response and the relocation of our residents . I just want to understand more [10:42:58 AM] about the process that salvation Army had here with determining the closure notifying residents and then also the funding piece. Can you speak to those three elements? Unfortunately, ma'am. The there were a number of meetings with the city. None of those folks are two table now. And so it's hard to speak to that. And so this has been an ongoing conversation for very significant period of time. And in hopes that we could work something out and make it work. We continue to do business as usual. And so our thought was we continue to serve. We continue to open. We continue. Do we need to do for the client? Until we are at a point where there is no room left for us to do anything other than closed the facility down and we got to that point. And that's when the decision was made to go ahead and act on a long period of trying to make it work. So major, thank you for that. And just to clarify you're saying that the city leadership [10:43:59 AM] was aware of the challenges Salvation Army was facing and Salvation Army did approach the city and perhaps seeking an alternative ownership or management of the shelter. And those individuals are no longer with the city. Thank you. I certainly will be following up with city staff to better understand what happened there. And then can you speak to the notification of residents? Why why the sudden announcement just a few weeks ago. Because that's when we did determine internally that we were going to make the announcement and we were asked to delay it, and we did. And then that was just the process of which we determined we were going to do it. Okay? Colleagues and yes, council member alter I want to get a better understanding just of the why we're here. How we got here, kind of following up on chair point is, is questions. It seems [10:45:01 AM] to me and this may be obvious that yeah, the. The quick nature in which you're operating here or that that you've given this short notice. You found somebody to purchase the land is this? No, we have not. So what is the impetus behind the immediacy of your actions, finances and that is a. A day to day. Like what? What is your net loss on a three million a year? Three million a year. And so. Based on what numbers is that your current 64? No based on occupancy. Do you the 100 plus okay? And have how long have you all been operating at that loss? I've been here 3.5 years, sir. It's been three million the whole time. Never. No better. No worse. Okay and we've done everything we could to try and supplement it and [10:46:02 AM] make it work. But we're the point now where it's just becoming impossible. And so let's say you move these residents out. What next? Are you? Are you going to list it for sale. Are you going to list it for lease or you? What's the future plan for this? Sure we will. We will listed for sale and again Georgia corporation, they would have to approve it. And once they approved, then we would we would put it on the market. That is correct. The city came to you tomorrow and said we will operate this facility so that you're not operating at a loss. That would be fine by you all. Careful to say fine, but we would certainly , entertaining conversation. Yes. Okay, because I know from the first day. I've been here trying to find space for shelter. Has been incredibly challenging. And here we have. Upwards of almost 250. Potential spots. That we are removing from [10:47:03 AM] the equation. And I've struggled to find 5 10 20. And I get your financial challenges you are doing. I went out to the wrath gave her center you are doing great work. But. We are all trying to solve this challenge. Y'all are part of this. Struggle that that we are trying to fix. But. If you're going to be a partner, we've got to be a partner. And two come about, you know, I understand. Previous discussions have been had, but but to have this short of a runway and two create this. Almost feeling artificial immediacy. Doesn't feel like a good partner. And so if there is a way that we can figure out how [10:48:03 AM] the city can step in I don't know. But something's got to be done to keep these spaces operational because as. Diana mentioned we just don't have enough. I don't think we disagree with you, sir. I can tell you we tried. We have earnestly tried and it hasn't gotten anywhere and so we were at a point where we had to make a critical decision. And although it seems to the community as it was a quick decision, it was not a quick decision. It was a very lengthy decision and process. But, yeah, we were willing to listen and hear anything. But we just didn't get great communication at that time evaluation done of the property. We're in the process of doing that now. Pass it along you before I toss it over to count from qadri. I do want to remind my colleagues that we still need to take [10:49:04 AM] public comment, and we have another briefing from our library division. So counselor qadri, yours will be the last question. Also want to recognize that our city manager is here on the dais? Okay thank you. Thank you, city manager for being here and just want to reiterate, you know our or my support for the city identifying, you know a possible partnership here with regarding the cell of the land and release yeah, just a few questions. 11 thing I want to touch on is what council member Ryan alter had mentioned. Your your answer was that the shelter had been operating on a loss of $3 million a year. What you know, and he's the reason for the closure is all tied to finances. What would it look like if the shelter was to remain open for another week or two? Again it's a financial. That's primarily a financial question. I think we can accommodate what the mayor has asked if the funding that we just we don't have the funds, and so when we direct our resources as he indicated to [10:50:05 AM] wrath, Gaber center and things like that. We had we just ran out of that. That portion of our income. I understand that I'm saying what would the numbers be for another week or two? Right now? We have 30. You know what would they financial? Yeah I apologize. We are estimated about $100,000 a month. Okay so it would be about because we scaled it down correctly would be 50 K for the for an additional two weeks, okay? When , when a quickly touch back on that unemployment question. I think I had asked what's going to happen to them. They're going to staff will be transitioned. Have they already been transitioned? Or is that the plan that no, they've already been advised that they would be they would be going there still intact right now, because we still have clients have been advised, but there's a possibility that they're not going to have a job when the shelter no, no, no, no. The they've already been told they're going to be moving to one of our other facilities. That process already set going to be anyone who is going to be unemployed. We had three that we [10:51:06 AM] weren't able to go because of the position that they had or not positions that we have in the other shelters. And then communication, obviously with the folks that are there, but when folks are have there been folks coming into the shelter, and if they have, what is the communication be given to new residents who have maybe, you know, enter the shelter since you all decided to close shop the day of the announcement. We made a decision at that time that we would not bring in any new clients. Okay with the ones that were already in the house. Okay, thank you. Manager Garza. Yes, madam chair and the committee members. I got a chance to speak to the major last night. And I know that this is, an issue that's important to the council and important to the community. And so we're gonna we promised that we would get together with the staff to see what the possible solutions would be. Whether it's the 30 days for 100,000 or something less than that, to make sure we accommodate the individuals that [10:52:07 AM] are being served by the shelter . I think on the communication issue what I what I can say is that we also on our end, could have reached out to the major to talk to him about this, at least from my office that that premier from as near as I can tell that did not happen. And and so I promised him last night that we would get together we would talk about this and find a way to make it a take this situation that is a difficult one. But make it make the best we can of it, and we intend to do that. Thank you. Thank you, major for joining us. We're going to have some public comment if you are available, and if you can, if you can stay and to help, listen and hear from our residents on their comments. Thank you. Clark, if you can call the names . We have Amanda Madonna. And to add sun full fewer in the audience. Please come to the mic. Armando. Mom, mom, Jana. And two yet sangju. I think we [10:53:14 AM] also had Paulette was listed on much sure if she, she's spoken, laughable leave. She just gave a brief update. Hello everybody. Hello the committee members. My name is Dixon and Diane. Current resident at the Salvation Army. I have said a lot of problem E at a conference, so I'm not going to waste my time here. I am being thankful for all those times that, staying at the salvation. So I didn't know about the loss that that the channel men dead that has been going through. But still, I'm [10:54:17 AM] I'm thankful that they offer me a full, a replacement 2000, Texas. Of course I didn't. I haven't been given a second option, but you go to Dallas. The thing is, I have been here six months and I've been following with my medical cares and excuse me, and that, I am. I'm sorry gets it gets a bit emotional. Yeah. Can I go to we're gonna switch places for just a second. So thank you all for having us pilots all Tony, the director of the Texas home apart, organizing director at the Texas harm reduction alliance. I wanted to start by saying there's three things that were really concerned about the first is the accountability of holding this provider. Who's [10:55:18 AM] operating in our city, having some accountability and oversight over the salvation Army and how they continue to do work in our city and other providers. Future providers the second and this is actually in reverse order. The first is what is going to happen in detail exact detail with the existing residents at the Salvation Army . It is very, very discouraging, and concerning that so many people have been lost. I think that the major talked about 10 could name often people that have have left the shelter and have gone somewhere else. We were talking about 100 100 residents. Less than a week ago. And so it's extremely concerning that we don't know where some of those people have gone and we still don't have detail about what's going to be happening in the next week, and so today, you're going to hear from other residents about that specific pieces that until we have the detail, this is incredibly destabilizing and anxiety produces so much anxiety and stress to people that are living there. I'm just gonna call this what it is, and it is [10:56:18 AM] negligence. It's negligence from the moment that this was communicated to residents in a into the public in a blog post the fact that we've called on the Salvation Army and major wreck line to speak to the public to residents over and over again and have had heard silence. It is pure negligence that the only option that this provider is giving is a bus ticket to Dallas when people have medical appointments here in Austin. And so many other things, and so we should call that what it is. It is negligence. We need oversight over Salvation Army and providers like Salvation Army. Thank you. We need details about what's going to happen to the lives of people that are still living at the celebration. Army. Next. We'll have Caroline Williams. And new homie Adams. I think, this I think she had some a few more comments to provide, okay to get thank you, ma'am. So yep. That I will get some help [10:57:22 AM] from the city that allowing me to stay here. You continue with my medical care. I know that I don't know. How long have you been, dealing with the crisis homelessness in here in the city , but I know that the crisis is scary, but lack of humanity is scarier. And that. Michael statement. Which today is you really what you saw, so I believe that the good things that you're willing to put out you will get back in the end, and that's all I have to say. Thank you so much. This. Thank you. The next speaker we have is Armand er, Madonna. And then Caroline Williams. Speaker, you have three minutes. Good morning , everyone on the council, Mr mayor. My name is Caroline [10:58:23 AM] Williams. I had been homeless since. January, the seventh. January 23rd. I came to the Salvation Army on set February 7th. When I got there. I thought that was my saving grace thought I had a place to stay. But apparently not. And being evicted from there, too. So. In that process, me and my son came together. Through the stress my son passed away. Just last week . I was hospitalized. Just got out of the hospital yesterday. It was very traumatic. The people. But that's homeless in a shelter. That depressed. They don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. No family, no job. Nothing. We were just warned about. Them closing the shelter. What about three weeks [10:59:25 AM] ago? Two weeks ago, 33 weeks ago with guests. With no notification. Nowhere for us to go. We were devastated people that's homeless already have a situation on their backs being homeless and then finding out that you're gonna be homeless again. That just brings out a lot of anxiety and stress and everything it does not help. We've been. I think it's a slap in the face. Really because they're treating us like we just throw aways just because we're homeless. We are human beings, and I think it's inhumane that somebody just want to give you a couple of weeks to find a place to stay if we couldn't find a place to stay out there. What makes you think we're going to find a place in in that short period of time? That's impossible. Who does that? I think the Salvation Army needs to reevaluate their criteria and get some money. Do something. Put us in a shelter. Give us hotels do something for us. We [11:00:28 AM] didn't ask to be this way. Thank you. The next speaker, Naomi Adams, and again, Armando Madonna. If you're in the room, please come to the mic. Keli Adams. I'm sorry. Kelly Alexander and Katy real. Next up will be William K. For. Hello council. Mayor Watson. Thank you for having me. I'm Kelly Alexander. I have been unsheltered. For quite some time [11:01:29 AM] . We won't get into those numbers and, Texas is my home. Austin is my home. I do have family. And that was an option. They gave me. Well don't you have family? Well, sure, I do. I am poor. Any of you to just pack up a little bit that you have and go move in with your daughter move in with Sean. Move in with your mother and make her you know. Drive her crazy. You know, I'm unable body human being this is what happens to you in a short time. You know physically. Mentally. Thank god . I still have my faculties. Yeah, I'm crazy, but I'm not insane. I'm totally lucid. And, I'm very passionate about it because I've been there. I've slept on the sidewalk and I'm a proud member of the homeless community. Now I've said it before. I don't know what lies. For me. Coming ahead. But there [11:02:32 AM] are some of us in this type of community and that we are diligent and we do want to pick ourselves up. We want to ascend the ladder and we want shelter. That being said, unless I heard it wrong that the. Major raichlen. What pardon me. I didn't pronounce his name. Right wreck line. Excuse me that they've known since last September, something we were. I was blessed to be working that particular day and some temporary work that they had a not even a meeting. They came into the dining room. Some of the ladies had told me and told than that. Guess what? You got to be out in this particular you know, at this time and you know , so people are on edge. Gossip is flying around. You know who's [11:03:33 AM] going to go? Where but we didn't get any, said memo. You know, where's my memo? But I have faith and, that that the. Those of us that are diligent and we do get up in the morning and we are productive in society. We just don't lay around and wait for things to come to us. We're diligent. We asked. We have questions. You know, we want to be in a place where we can be part of, this society again, you know, but we are you know we are. We're still here. And I was thinking this I was reading in the chronicle and it kind of set me back considering we are. You know, we're not just numbers where people thank you. Speaker your time is up again. Katy Rio Keffer Williams. If you're in the audience, please come to the mic. You have three minutes. [11:04:49 AM] I want to thank you guys for being here today and I didn't want to get him a short I'm overwhelmed. So bear with me. Today. I look extremely tired for the reason that the fact that I work tonight and since this situation is started, I have gone to work and then a couple hours later showed up to press conferences. Two. Not necessarily fight for myself, but for others less than I do. I would like to start off with a couple of dates to seven. 2 20. 2 17. 32 38 and 3 15. Tuesday even, which would be February 7th shortly after I island. The shelter. I was diagnosed with complex PTSD. You can see that's [11:05:56 AM] hard for me to deal with. There are 2 17. The news broke between the residents. By one of the residents coming in and asking you shelter style if the blog that we saw was true shortly after that, everyone with those telephone I was googling about the shelter closure. We had our questions, but we knew we had to wait until the next Monday, which would read February he is when they came into our lunches and officially told us that they were officially clothing. As of March. 15. We were told at that time when another resident asked . About the relocation and at that time yeah, they staff looked at us. And said. [11:06:58 AM] Unfortunately we had to say that about the relocation. And then we were asked if we had any friends or family that we could go to. There are some of us that are fortunate that when you have family members, but the unfortunate nous of we do not have those family members to go to. Hmm. Then 32. That would be the date of our press conference. That particular days. Again, like I said earlier. I had approximately four hours of sleep that day before I went to the press conference. I went to the press conference to be support. No I did not speak that day because I was too extremely tired to speak that particular day. The Salvation Army decided to call me while I was at the press conference and asked me about my coordinated assessment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next [11:07:59 AM] up to speak is real. Ogletree and Maria. Answer, Paige. You have three minutes. How you doing? Council mayor Watson. My name is William Kiefer. So the first thing I want to say is that the day the news broke, Salvation Army was closing. As he just said he was turning people away the day the news broke the blog post broke. That is not true. I moved into the Salvation Army that exact day I was actually on hold waiting in the lobby. For them to get out of their meetings, which their meeting was evident evidently about the closure of the Salvation Army. But then being told we don't know where you're going to go get and figure it out yourself. And then all of a sudden telling come to us telling us hey, would you be willing to go to Dallas of their space? I tried to inform them. Hey, let me think about it. Let [11:09:00 AM] me make my decision because I'm from Austin. Austin is my home. I get told, we don't have time to wait and see their yes or no . We're not gonna let you wait. We're gonna make you decide right now. That's not the way to handle this. We're human beings . We're not animals were not children or adults. Give us time to think about it. Let us make the right decision. Instead of trying to force something on us that is that we may not want to do. It may not be the right decision for us. It may not be safe for us. What are they going to do when time comes and we don't go to Dallas or we don't go here or there? Is the city going to help us get hotel rooms? Is the city going to help ? Make sure that they place us somewhere? That's our fear is where are we going to? Where are we going to go? Where a family at the Salvation Army. We've lived together every day we see each other so I don't want to see any one of them and just [11:10:01 AM] like them. They don't want to see any anybody else on the street. But that's the fear that we run two is where are we going to end up? Are we going to end up on the street? And so it's just we need the answers. Of what's going to happen. How are they going to be held accountable? And what are they? What are y'all going to do to protect us? So that way we're not added to the statistics of being homeless being on the street? Because right now it's it feels like it's Dallas or on the street. Those are the two options we have, and neither of those will work. I don't have family in Dallas. I have family in Austin. I don't want to leave my family. I don't wanna I have . I can't live with my family because you know apartments have rules so I can't I'm stuck. But it's not so much of a rush decision that we should be forced to. It should have should [11:11:02 AM] have been longer than a month. It shouldn't have been. Oh you have a month to figure it out. It should have been two months. Three months, four months. It shouldn't have been. It feels like it was just a rush decision. Thank you. Thank you, speaker Maria's torpedo. Madam chair. Yes, mayor. As the next speaker is coming down. I was gonna wait till after everybody has, spoken, but that was very compelling testimony with a number of questions that were asked, and so I'm just gonna talk right now for a second. I want to. I want to start by saying that I think I can speak for this city council and this interim city manager and his his staff and the in his office right now that everyone is deeply disappointed in this, this is not the way to do business with anyone, especially those who are finding themselves in a vulnerable situation with little choices. Given to them [11:12:03 AM] and I also want to say that I appreciate my colleagues that have been involved in this as we've worked to try to come up with a solution, and I appreciate the interim city managers immediate. Effort to get involved in this, in and do it in a way where we have we have some viable opportunities. Let me be clear. This city I visited with the city manager and, and I can I can say this this city is not going to let anyone me left without a place to go. And no one on the street. And that will include people that don't have to go to the you don't have to go to another city. If you don't want to. We're going to work with the Salvation Army to make additional time available. If that costs them money for the city of Austin to make [11:13:04 AM] additional time available. We're going to do that. But the Salvation Army needs to be willing to keep that shelter open. So that we can do that. And. For those, there's still some work to do. So by Friday. The city will have a plan so that we will be able to meet the needs of those who are being abandoned. So I'm sorry to interrupt madam chair, but I think it's important for people to know that. Thank you. And thank you mayor for committing to that Friday update. I do think that's important city manager if we can have an update that talks through what are the possible? You know, interim solutions that the city has identified and partnership with Salvation Army and with our divisions. And madam chair. Just so you know, I want to thank Stephanie and Adrian and Diana for all the work they're doing [11:14:06 AM] on this. They've committed to me that they'll continue as they have in the past continue to work with the major and the executives of Salvation Army. So we have a resolution by Friday, so I thank them for their hard work on this. Mayor thank you. City of council, and, we just want some help. We just want to relocate. To, to a safe place to a safe home. Thank you so much. Do we have any additional speakers? Think one of the men got up when I was supposed to speak. I think it's a mistake. Anyway my name is Rick. Identify yourself. Thank you. My name is she? My name is ryo poultry, and , I'm at the shelter next door to the Salvation Army, but, we're all here and I'm here for similar reason that's happening nationwide. It's practically a pandemic, which, homeless [11:15:07 AM] crisis. You know what I'm saying? And, you can't turn a blind eye to the solution by kicking people out on the street . I mean, and then you talk about how I hear it. I hear a lot of people talk about. Oh, man, you know, this city really used to be a great city. It's trash now, you know well you know, it's funny because the people I hear say all this stuff they don't ever talk about a solution to it. They don't know why we're on the streets. Any of that stuff. You know, the assume that we're all strung out on drugs. Like we're trash to them , basically, and, you know, so I can see why maybe to the major. It was no problem for him to shut down the Salvation Army because, you know, he doesn't have to worry about the things we have to worry about. You know what I'm saying? He's he's already set. Probably got a nice house and all that, so the bottom line is if he had had the human decency and any type of moral and ethical standards. He would wouldn't. We wouldn't even be here today to be discussing [11:16:08 AM] this because he should understand that. We need more time to make decisions. To find a place to stay, and all we need is opportunity jobs, affordable housing. You know what I mean? And it's like I don't think that's too much. We need shelter fit for human beings. It's simple. You know what I'm saying? Like we don't need to be living like freaking alley. You know what I'm saying? Intense under the freeway. You know what I'm saying? Like that's basically all you want. You know what I'm saying? That's how I feel about that. And that's all I have to say. I have no other speakers. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who joined us today to testify to share your experiences and thank you to our staff and to the major for joining us. For today's update, colleagues, we're going to move on with our agenda. There are a couple of items that we need to go back to, and that includes approving minutes. So the first item before us is the approval of the corrected November 2022 [11:17:10 AM] meeting minutes. So for item number one can I get a motion? The mayor motions. And seconded by vice chair, Velasquez. Any discussion or correction of the minutes. Seeing none. Let's take a vote all in favor. Okay. That passes unanimously. Now we're gonna move on to item number two . Can I get a motion to approve the December 14th 2022 meeting minutes as presented vice chair, Velasquez motions. Seconded by the mayor all in favor. Hey, passes unanimously. All right. Thank you. Next up. We're gonna have a briefing to counsel to a briefing to council on the Austin public library long range strategic plan. If we can have director Roosevelt weeks join us . He will be providing this briefing on the long range plan. Good morning, man. Madam chair [11:18:11 AM] council members, mayor, Mr mayor. My name is Roosevelt weeks, and I'm the director of the Austin public library, proud director of the Austin public library, but we have 24. Service points. 20 branch libraries, one central library, Austin history center recycle read in our book, mobile. Next line, please. I'm gonna be able to give you a project overview of this project is a year long project. We worked with a vendor. Group four to help us with this effort. We had a great turnout in in reaching our community to talk about what they would like to see us doing and then we're gonna talk about the key themes that came from it. A library vision mission and strategic goals and then talk about our facilities. And at the end, we have some questions. Make room for some questions. Next slide, please. The purpose of the project was to develop a vision. For Austin future library services in space. Develop a strategic plan. To god a pl for [11:19:12 AM] the next five years develop a plan to guide future apple strategies, programming spaces and then strengthen a pl position as a key partner in the city, in serving the community issues addressed the community issues next slide, please. During this process, we spoke to nearly 6000 community members in working on this plan. 400 plus staff members to help us to develop this plan and 70 Steph 70, plus stakeholders and partners during this process. Next slide, please. Let's look at some of the key things that came out of the, of the project. Next slide, please. Austin is a vibrant city. Most of us know that Austin is a great place to live. Great parks, neighborhoods . Great libraries. And it's a walkable community. We love being part of the city next life, please. But we also face challenges. Affordability traffic cost of living transportations or some of the [11:20:12 AM] issues that we heard from the community. Next line, please. The community that I can read that. Let's see and read my nose. I was a community love libraries. That is no mistake about it. And I last community wide survey 82% of the community , respected library, love libraries, and we were second only to those, chief Joe bacon knows cape wearing firefighters and now goal is to be there up there with them. Next time the survey come out. We don't wear capes. Next live, please. Austin wants us to do more, more. We provide great service. They want to see us to do more, and some of the things they want to see us to do is to collaborate and connect B a B, a place to connect in the library to talk about community issues to help us to find space to, to come up with some solutions. They also want us to expand our lending, outside of books and materials [11:21:13 AM] as well as laptops. They want to see us start lending, home gardening tools, sewing equipment and things of that nature, and we are starting to do some of that. But they want to see us to do more of that. The third thing that would like to see us doing is to create a space where we can. We can capitalize on the music live music capital of the world by producing a V music recording studios for that for that work. And then finally, they want to be able to learn new skills. We believe that the library is a place for everybody. We like to call it the people's universities to get those skills and opportunities to grow them grow them personally. Next slide, please. And they almost also want to see us to partner with more organizations so that we can get our message out to do some of the work, expand the work that we're doing, and so we want to create additional partnerships out in the community. Next slide, please. And then we gonna talk about our new vision mission statement and our strategic goals. Next line, please. And this is our new [11:22:15 AM] vision and our new mission statement. Vision statement is a model of equity, inclusion, access and diversity. Mission is to inspire inspiring all to discover, learn and create. Next slide, please. And these are the five goals that, that came from the from the work in working with the community on staff. And our partners. We want to provide community centric programs and services. Design and develop spaces for community connections. Foster stakeholder relationship and that's working with our foundation Austin history center association. And most of all the community that we serve. And we wanna library access one of the things we want to make sure that we do is to create, to get rid of some of the barriers out there for members to use our services. And so we want to make sure that we can expand those access to everybody in the community. And then we want to engage our staff. We got the best avenue. This is my opinion. The best staff in the city they love working with the community. They [11:23:17 AM] are dedicated, passionate, and they're very smart at what they do in the service they provide. Next line, please. And then let's talk about our facilities. Next slide, please. I got the warning. I'm gonna keep going. Austin libraries are community hubs, and this is what we heard. And this is the thing that we want to capitalize on. Austin libraries by Ecuador access to library space and services. The library has the capacity to serve its growing population. And then in the library network grow substantially. Those are the things that we want to make sure that we're able to do next line, please. Austin library or community hubs. We are in every community when most of the communities here but our community is growing, so we want to be that community hub. Next line, please. Space for our core programs and services. Next lot. A space for a high programs, and events. I'll central library is [11:24:18 AM] a great space to provide some of those major programming services, but we need more out in the community. Next lot. We want to be a space for partnerships. Next lot. And as we all know, the library is a place for everybody. No matter what background you have what? You're living status. It is a place for everybody. Next slide, please. There's a place for art and cultural showcase. Next time. Reflect the Austin community next lot inspiring and beautiful. Next lot. And then be ready for the future. That's what we want to be able to do for our libraries. Next slide, please. Now the central library in Austin history center or or two of our community resources. We want to continue to expand upon the work that we're doing in our central library. We're doing some work at the Austin history center and expanding into the fog building. That work is going on now from 2018 bond. [11:25:18 AM] There's some great opportunities in the fog building as we expand into that space. We're looking to partner with the Travis county archives to expand that space is used to be able to use a lot of that space. Long term. Next slide, please. Often uses multiple branches also not use multiple branches. They don't just live in the neighborhood. They don't use those branches, but they go out go across the city to use branches. Branches used is shaped by geo geographic factors, including 9 35 in the river. And we want to make sure that in all four quadrants, of the city we have several branch library capacity for their respective population size. As we all know, the city is growing at a great rate. And so we have to make sure that we are able to provide for those spaces and we want to make sure that we have a mini central libraries and all quadrant of the city so that people don't have to travelers for we can reduce our carbon footprint. We're able to reduce the traffic and make sure that we're able to provide for the [11:26:19 AM] community, with their basic with some of the needs that they want. And then we want to create resiliency hubs in the four quadrants of the neighborhood so we can respond to emergency situations when they come up. Next slide, please. This light talks about where we are right now from a space, press square footage basis on capital capital space per square footage and we're at 0.45 somewhere and then we should be at 0.682 point 08 square footage. We're not there yet. We have to build as we continue to grow to meet the needs of the community and some of our, elaborate system pure library system. Way ahead of us when it comes to that. We've got Boston. You got San Francisco, were down there with, Nashville. And there's another small city, Lewisville. We're in that range we need to. We really want to be in the range of 0.6 point, 6.8 and how we do that. We have to [11:27:20 AM] expand our footprint in the community. Next line, please. Here's our long range plan that we want to be able to do and hopefully, in the next bond election, we can include some of this work going forward. This is a next 5 to 15 years plan. What we want to do is maintain the size of these current library locations. Expanded replace to 30,000 square feet at the other location that we have and then create for regional libraries throughout the city, and that's in the far north east for northwest for southeast and for southwest. Next slide, please. And that concludes my presentation. Are there any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Director reeks. I'm super excited to have this briefing. I love that we're thinking about what our needs are as a community, especially in a growing city like Austin and understanding that we are below the target of library space for a city our size and understanding where we need to [11:28:21 AM] position the expanded library facilities and or new library facilities throughout the city colleagues question mayor couple quick questions. And you may have said this and I just missed it and I apologize. The point. Oh, 45, where we are, you said point oh 68.62 point. 08 is what we wanted to go. 62 I got you. Okay what is that? What are those numbers come from? That's the average square footage of libraries across the country where the average means of what we want to be. Got it that that actually makes sense. Now I think about it should have thought about it before I ask the question. Thank you for that. And then what's the timeline for the fox library. We, scheduled to complete that in the late fall of this year? Good construction, and that's only for the two. Let's see the 2nd 3rd floor is what we're going to that we're doing. We put an archival space in place. [11:29:22 AM] We still have some additional dollars that we need this probably about 50,050 million additional dollars. To complete the renovation of the whole building. But right now we're just focusing on expanding the history center into that space so we can get our archives back from iron mountain and in other places because of the need to expand the history center. When the central library opened it allowed for fox to be used for that, and the initial money just went for that expansion and not beyond. That's correct. Ok, thank you. Thank you, madam chair. Yeah colleagues. Any other questions for director weeks? Thank you so much. Thank you. Alright colleagues that leads us to our final item for our meeting today, and it's a discussion on future items. I would love to hear back from the community and customer qadri. You have a suggestion as well. But mayor vice chair of Alaska's any suggestions on topics for the committee to cover okay? Not right now, but I'll bring some alright, counselor, qadri you [11:30:25 AM] know, first and foremost, I want to thank councilor Fuentes for I was taking my call. And no matter how how late? It might be, but, you know, I think one thing that we're going to show as a as a council. My hope is a sense of urgency. I talked to mayor Watson about that. Especially with this situation with run house neighbors and the Salvation Army. And I think that that same sense of urgency should be shown and afforded to all communities in this city, and I want to talk about specifically today for something to be talked about next meeting the intersex community this was brought up to me late last night. And like I said, I reached out to the chair and she we talked it through, and I just wanted to bring it up. So in 2021 Austin passed a historic resolution to condemn non consensual surgeries and to direct the city to explore methods to implement a public education campaign to provide accurate affirming information. [11:31:25 AM] To the doctors and parents of intersex children about these children's health to counter misinformation that can be presented as medical advice. We were the second city in the us to pass local policy like this after New York City, and I believe the final report and recommendations will be provided sometime in sometime in July. As I said, I've spoken with your Fuentes and due to the time sensitive nature and importance of this item, I like to request for the next public health committee meeting to add this item to the agenda. To go over the details in the most recent memo distributed just yesterday. Specifically I think it would be helpful to understand the barriers are risen by the statutory differences between different health departments and actions. We as a council can take to mitigate those barriers . So, you know, looking forward to that and the next public health meeting. You thank you, councilman qadri. That is a topic that we can sleep in one of our upcoming meetings. Colleagues Austin want to draw your attention to some of the [11:32:26 AM] topics that me and my team have been thinking about, is convening a conversation with stakeholders on gun violence as a public health crisis and that we could do in June. Also doing an update on our food system. Childcare mental health language inclusion housing employment as you can tell, there's many intersections between our public health issue area and the top issues that our city faces. So this is a really great opportunity for us as a committee to reflect on on these issues and bring and call attention to it. From a public health perspective. Alright unless there's any further discussion. Okay there's 11 33 and I adjourn this meeting.