When do Austin's cold weather shelters activate?

The City of Austin has revisited its criteria for activating cold weather shelters, which help keep people out of the elements during dangerous weather events.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The City of Austin has revisited its criteria for activating cold weather shelters, which help keep people out of the elements overnight during dangerous weather.

"We relook at it every year to make sure that we're still able to provide the services required when we do activate," said Greg McCormack, a program manager with the City of Austin's Homeless Strategy Office.

The threshold this year:

• If it's projected to be 32 degrees or lower overnight
• If it's expected to be 35 degrees or lower with precipitation
• If it's forecasted to be 35 degrees or lower with a wind chill of 32 degrees or lower

That last element is something the office recently added to the criteria.

"When we talked with the different community members and understood that the wind chill has just as great a factor on someone who is outside...we decided to include that," McCormack said.

As of this year, the Austin Area Urban League (AAUL) is doing all of the staffing for the overnight cold weather shelters, which pop up in Austin recreation centers, according to McCormack. That group has been working with the City for a couple years now on overnight shelter help.

That same group will run the registration point at the One Texas Center, which is also the downtown Austin community court headquarters, he said. City employees had previously stepped in to help with the overnight shelters, a criticism of an audit released late 2022.

People in need of help can bring their animals, their belongings and there are no eligibility requirements for the shelters.

Getting the word out

The City of Austin says it works with an outreach team -- which is comprised of roughly half a dozen nonprofit groups -- to warn people experiencing homelessness of dangerous weather and ways to get help. First responders, like Austin-Travis County EMS, have previously told KXAN they also help spread the word.

"In the last two or three years, there have been has been real growth in outreach," McCormack said.

This year, the City's Homeless Strategy Office also took control of a text message system that has been used for several years to better let people know of upcoming cold weather shelter openings.

"The feedback we get is that a lot of individuals who are unsheltered do have cell phones and receive those messages and appreciate it. We also let all of the community providers know when we activate so that when they're out on the streets, talking with individuals, providing resources that they're letting them know," McCormack said.

The extent of the need

While the City of Austin opening emergency overnight shelters helps rapidly expand the capacity of the system, day-to-day there is still a massive gap in need.

According to the latest data from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), there are 1,381 shelter beds available in our community, of which roughly 80% are filled. That leaves just over 200 shelter beds for people in need.

"And our estimate of unsheltered homelessness is over 5,000. So we estimate that there are over 5,000 people experiencing homelessness in the community beyond the shelter capacity of our system," said Claire Burrus, director of research and evaluation at ECHO.

ECHO recently made efforts to make that data more easily available through its website. ECHO's dashboard provides updated numbers on things like system capacity, number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and programs available.