Austin City Council members on Tuesday will hear from city staff on ongoing efforts to combat homelessness, the city’s response to the coronavirus, preparation for the 2020 census and updates released last week to the Land Development Code.
Council members and Austin public health workers have been pushing out safety information related to the coronavirus, which first took hold in China in early January. Since then, the virus has spread to more than 20,000, including 425 deaths, most of which have been in China.
So far, 11 cases have been reported in the United States, but none have been confirmed in Texas.
Austin public health said the risk to Austin and Travis County is low, and it’s important to keep it that way.
Discussions on homelessness will continue amid a series of violent encounters over the past few weeks that have prompted Gov. Greg Abbot to continue criticism of Austin policies related to public camping, which went into effect last year.
Advocates for the homeless, however, have said the governor’s equating crimes to homelessness and the cities policies stigmatizes the group, and doesn’t help the larger city efforts to get people off the streets.
The updated land code draft released Friday would cut back on possible new housing construction by reducing housing capacity in some zones and decreasing density along heavily trafficked corridors that have been identified by the University of Texas as areas that are gentrifying.
The next regular council meeting is set for 10 a.m. Thursday. To see how the council votes on these and other issues, visit the American-Statesman’s VoteTracker website.
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