Texas Scorecard By Jacob Asmussen May 26, 2020
AUSTIN — During an economic crisis where government shutdowns could force 261,000 Austinites out of work, the local government is now spending more of citizens’ money on expensive hotels for the homeless.
Last week, the Austin City Council approved spending $8.75 million on a downtown-area hotel to house roughly 75 homeless people. The council is forcing taxpayers to spend over $116,000 per room—a price that doesn’t even include the ongoing maintenance and operation costs.
Also, the property—a Country Inn & Suites—was valued by the county at only $4.8 million.
The council approved the purchase on their consent agenda, meaning they packaged it with numerous other uncontested items and voted without public discussion.
The hotel is only the latest purchase in the city council’s ongoing trail of spending seemingly overpriced sums on homeless housing; last fall, the council bought another hotel for $8 million, though it could only house 81 citizens.
Last year’s hotel is also a “low-to-no barrier†shelter, which, according to city officials, means individuals can enter without any background check, stay as long as they want, and don’t need to be sober while they live there. It remains to be seen if the latest hotel will be the same.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/local/amid-economic-crisis-austin-taxpayers-forced-to-buy-8-75m-homeless-hotel/
