The Sobering Center Austin, a short-term treatment facility for intoxicated people, can be used as a quarantine space for homeless Austinites during the city’s shelter-in-place order should it be needed.
Travis County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the move as part of steps the city and county are taking to prepare for possible increased COVID-19 cases. The court also boosted the center’s budget from $1.1 to $1.8 million.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin Public Health, told the court he thinks the stay-at-home order will need to be extended beyond mid-April, especially as more resources go to harder-hit areas.
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said there’s a need to ramp up to 2,000 hospital beds by May 15 and they are targeting a probable need to ramp up to 10,000 hospital beds by June 30.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat it,” she said. “I think most of us will find that we are hands-on taking care of someone at some point over the next six months.”
In a letter to the Sobering Center’s board of directors, Assistant City Manager Christopher Shorter said “with COVID-19 cases in Travis County doubling every other day, the approach is to have facilities ready to handle individuals that cannot safely quarantine as soon as possible.”
In case of an emergency, the center would allow no more than 15 people to quarantine at the Sobering Center. Those homeless residents, although not positive for COVID-19, would have been screened and allowed to stay because of their higher risk due to age or underlying health factors.
According to a city memo, patients who become symptomatic or have a known exposure will be removed from the Sobering Center and reassigned to an isolation facility.
Should the center be needed, the city plans to arrange for daily meals and supplies while Sobering Center staff help with day-to-day operational needs.
The current client load at the center is “virtually zilch” right now and so it has the capacity to serve as a quarantine shelter, Roger Jefferies, the justice and public safety county executive, told the Commissioner’s Court.
Since it’s 2018 opening, the Sobering Center has diverted more than 2,000 people who were under the influence of alcohol or drugs from ending up in hospitals and jails.
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