AUSTIN (KXAN) — Elected city and county officials, along with local advocates, said “real, measurable progress” has been made to address the needs of those experiencing homelessness in Austin.
During a Wednesday press conference, the mayor and other leaders presented the 2025 State of the System report, published earlier Wednesday morning, which shows efforts by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) to address factors that lead to homelessness.
“The solution is clear—housing paired with services can really make a difference,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said during the ECHO presentation.
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said, “The only way we reduce homelessness is by working together,” adding that the ECHO coalition “center(s) homelessness in everything we do.”
The results of the ECHO program are a response to previous years’ reports, showing increased need for services.
The 2024 report showed that the number of people in Austin who sought services from the Homelessness Response System (HRS) had “increased dramatically” for the first time since 2022. However, more people were being moved out of homelessness and into permanent housing.
In January, ECHO’s bi-annual “Point-in-Time” (PIT) count — a single-day snapshot of the number of people sleeping on the streets or in shelters — found more than 3,000 people were experiencing homelessness. That’s up 900 people from the 2023 PIT.
The key takeaways section of the 2025 State of the System report shows the system has increased beds and shelter units by 108%. Additionally, emergency shelter capacity increased by 70%, year-over-year.
The report shows that the number of people served by the HRS increased from about 15,000 in 2019 to 28,348 in 2024. During Wednesday’s event, officials said the need for services has gone up, but the dramatic increase in use of services is due to the increase in available services — not necessarily a dramatic rise in the number of people needing services.
The report shows details about those who seek services from ECHO for homelessness, including race/ethnicity, age, amount of time spent unhoused, and the rate at which those who receive services stay housed after entering an HRS program.
“What we need to do now is continue to focus on what is working,” said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. “In Austin, we have two people that do outreach to encampments. Denver and Dallas, they have like 20 to 30. So we need to focus on things like that.”
David Gray, Austin’s homeless strategy officer, said that the results are encouraging, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“If we stop now, we’re going to regress, and so we have to keep going,” Gray said. “We have to remain diligent and disciplined and persistent in our pursuit of getting people off the streets.”
Overall, ECHO officials said they hope continued increases in services will reduce the experience of homelessness by addressing the causes of those going through hardships.
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