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The cornerstone of David Evans’ life is gratitude.
When the keys to his studio at Seabrook Square II, a permanent supportive housing facility that opened last month, landed in his palm, that’s all he felt, he said. So every morning, Evans does prayer meditations to give his thanks.
After three years of experiencing homelessness, Evans was among the first to move into Seabrook Square II.
The 60-unit facility, located at 2210 Pershing Drive, is part of a larger complex that includes the 204-unit Seabrook Square I. But while Seabrook Square l is designed to provide a variety of affordable housing options, Seabrook Square ll has a more direct purpose: helping to end the cycle of homelessness.
The idea of permanent supportive housing (PSH) grew out of the belief that it was better to stabilize people in housing rather than shuffling them through short-term shelters. By offering a place to live, along with support services for those with mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and intellectual disabilities, PSH hoped to address some of the root causes of homelessness.
According to Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) Executive Director Matthew Mollica, Austin has about 3,000 PSH beds, though not all of them provide the services Seabrook Square II does.
However, the estimated number of people experiencing homelessness on any given night can reach 6,000. And of that number, only 2,000 are enrolled in the region’s homeless response system.
“We don’t have enough units for everyone,” Mollica said. “There’s not like a big waitlist, but there’s just a long queue of people that need this type of housing. The more we’re able to have buildings like this go up, then the waitlist shrinks.”
Ongoing care
Seabrook Square II is operated by Integral Care, which functions as Travis County’s local mental health authority. Integral Care operates two other PSH sites in Austin, providing a total of 170 units.
Credit: Destini Ambus
Supportive housing can be provided in three ways: pairing rent subsidies with dedicated off-site services; creating a set-aside of units within an affordable housing community and providing rent subsidies and on-site services; or building new units at a single site and providing rent subsidies and supportive services.
“We subscribe to a housing first model,” said Kristi Kaiser, Integral Care’s practice administrator for housing and healthcare in its homeless initiatives. “Which means that there’s really no readiness condition for someone or prerequisite to coming into housing. Once you’re in housing, the hope is that the stability of the services offered incline people to want to engage in care.”
Among the services provided is behavioral case management and peer support services. Licensed therapists are also on site. Residents can use any of the services they like, Kaiser said.
For those who qualify, Integral Care provides housing vouchers to pay rent. For those with no income, rent is free. For those with an income, rent is capped at 30% of what they earn.
Finding housing
While ECHO doesn’t directly operate housing programs or provide services, it does coordinate federal funding applications, planning, and strategies for homelessness services.
Unhoused people like Evans are directed to places such as Seabrook Square II using a single point of access referral system, said Mollica. In the first half of the year, according to Mollica, ECHO made 480 referrals for the chronically homeless.
“They’re placed through that system where folks get referred based on their needs,” Mollica said. “The beauty of it is that for all the housing, there’s one application process.”
That process is called a coordinated assessment. Designed to eliminate having to go from agency to agency to obtain services, it allows the unhoused to talk with organizations that are already doing outreach.
“It’s based on a person’s individual needs and their individual vulnerability being out on the street,” said Chris Davis, ECHO’s communications and public policy director. “If we had enough housing units for everybody who needed it, this process would be a lot more simple. But the time (it takes) to get placed into housing can vary depending on their experiences leading up to homelessness, what their circumstances and experiences are while being homeless.”
In 2024, the median wait time to get connected with housing was 365 ½ days, according to ECHO’s State of the System Report. That was down from 471 days the year before.
It took Evans, who struggled with substance abuse, six months to go from assessment to getting a studio apartment.
Everyone’s experience is different, Davis notes, and there are no guarantees. “There are people who have been waiting in the system for a place to live for years,” he said, “and those who are connected to a place fairly quickly.”
Short on beds
In order to meet the housing demand, Mollica said, ECHO has recommended adding 500 PSH beds a year to the system.
It’s a recommendation that’s unlikely to be followed. According to Davis, despite evidence that PHS helps reduce the number of chronically homeless, a shift in federal priorities around funding may mean less money for this approach to housing.
While the number of beds in emergency shelters is expected to increase, the number of households served through permanent supportive housing services may fall, said David Gray, the city’s Homeless Strategy Officer, in a recent presentation to the Public Health Committee.
In 2027 the households served is projected to drop from the current 991 to 801. This, Gray said, is because of a federal decision to move funds away from PHS and toward emergency services.
In August, a judge struck down the effort by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to shift this funding to emergency services, but the future of PSH is still unclear.
Still, for the moment there are new PSH complexes such as Seabrook Square II. And in August, the Austin City Council approved a $6 million increase in funding for PSH wrap-around services. In early September, Travis County also updated its budget to include an additional $2 million for PHS services, said Ann Howard, County Commissioner for Precinct 3 and a former executive director of ECHO.
While this extra funding doesn’t mean there will be additional PHS units, it does help guarantee that the existing ones will have access to healthcare and be staffed with qualified personnel.
Personnel that Evans said he is grateful for in helping him get connected with resources and set goals for his future. Along with gratitude, community is very important to him.
“I hope to one day be a blessing to others in the way people at Integral Care was a blessing to me,” Evans said.
Destini Ambus is the growth, housing and affordability reporter for the Austin Free Press. She joins AFP’s staff as a Report for America Corps member. She attended Auburn University, where she earned her B.A. in journalism and was the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman. She was also a member of the inaugural class of the New York Times Corps. Before moving to Austin, she worked as the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News.
