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AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin City Council voted Wednesday to purchase a hotel to turn into transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The council unanimously voted to buy the Texas Bungalow Hotel & Suites for $6.7 million. Its purchase is the latest in a strategy from the city to buy hotels to house the homeless.
The city will use some money from a recurring $6.5 million fund taken from the police department’s budget to cover operating costs for the hotel, which are expected to be about $1.6 million per year, according to the Appeal.Â
The council decided in August to restructure the police department’s budget by cutting $21 million right away, primarily by cancelling three cadet classes. The decision also left room to cut an additional $129 million by the end of the fiscal year.Â
“In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, we made a significant cut to policing dollars and reinvested that in things like this,†council member Gregorio Casar told the Appeal. “That’s how we’re paying for this. That’s the only reason we’re able to do this.â€
A second hotel on the northern outskirts of Austin was also set to be purchased. However, at the behest of council member Mackenzie Kelly, that vote was put off for a week.
Kelly has shown some resistance to the purchase of that hotel, the Candlewood Suites. It lies in her district and its purchase marks a difficult vote for the new council member, who campaigned heavily on a platform that many of the city’s policies regarding homelessness were not beneficial.
“The city, in a lot of ways, has lost the trust of the community regarding the homeless situation, and we as leaders in our city deserve to provide them with transparency related to the place for the hotel and input from the community,” Kelly said. “I want to be clear here that I am in support of supportive housing for the homeless, because it’s what’s needed, and what we are doing currently for the homeless situation is not enough.
“We have a unique opportunity here today to postpone the vote and take a fresh and friendly approach to the relationship that the city has with residents that live here, both those housed, and unhoused. We can foster positive relationships between the housed community and unhoused community.”
The vote to postpone the purchase was 7-4, with council members Casar, Vanessa Fuentes, Sabino “Pio” Renteria and Kathie Tovo voting against.
The purchase of the Texas Bungalow Hotel & Suites gives the city 65 more rooms to add to its stock of former hotel rooms now being used as transitional housing.
It is the third hotel the city has purchased to house those experiencing homelessness. Last year, the city bought the Rodeway Inn, and the Country Inn & Suites, to convert them into transitional housing.
Though delayed until next week, the council appears poised to approve the purchase of the Candlewood Suites. The council’s agenda suggests the city would pay up to $9.5 million for the 83-room hotel.
“I just don’t think that a week delay will change the conversation that we’re already seeing bubble up from the community,” Fuentes said. “Being able to move forward and take action has been so much of the conversations we’ve shared especially on the campaign trail, and I feel this urgent need that we do not delay a single day to get us on that pathway.”
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
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