On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court dedicated $7.2 million toward a supportive housing development called the Lancaster, a 60-unit complex that will provide respite for people experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
The development is a project of the SAFE Alliance, a nonprofit serving survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence. SAFE is one of the 11 nonprofit partners in the Travis County Supportive Housing Initiative Pipeline (SHIP), a county initiative that aims to build 2,000 “deeply affordable” housing units fueled by a $110 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Residents will be referred to shelter at the Lancaster’s studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments through SAFE’s Coordinated Entry program. Coordinated Entry is an ambitious initiative that screens people experiencing homelessness and connects them with housing opportunities drawn from a database of every organization in the city. This alleviates the need for individuals seeking transitional housing to apply to multiple agencies in search of care.
For residents best accommodated at the Lancaster, SAFE and its partner organizations will provide a host of supportive services: Senior planner Nathan Fernandes reported that residents will have access to “Safe trauma-informed case management, survivor-led trauma-informed peer support services, and, of course, some of the very important wrap-around services such as benefits counseling, education and referral services for primary health care, substance use and legal services.”
Amenities will include community spaces like an indoor community room, outdoor community recreation space, supportive service staff offices, a group/conference room, laundry rooms, a computer lab, a single-entry/controlled-access reception area and around-the-clock property management. Developers attest that the complex will accommodate residents with a trauma-informed design imperative to respectfully accommodate its target population.
Some SHIP and other mixed-income housing projects have faced criticism for geographic isolation, lack of access to transportation and deficient access to basic amenities such as groceries and health care. As transitional housing projects are often clustered, some criticize the program for concentrating poverty.
The Lancaster, however, has received high marks for its site.
Presenters emphasized the advantages of the Lancaster’s location at the 5000 block of Lancaster Court in East Austin, just east of 51st Street’s intersection with Interstate 35. They cited major amenities for residents: access to high-frequency transit stops within a walkable radius, proximity to health care, employment, retail, educational options in the Mueller redevelopment area and healthy food access.
“We specifically were thrilled with this location because of the access to transportation, to food services, to jobs, to medical services, to good schools. And also to our own campuses, which are very close by and can provide additional support services to folks should the need arise,” Fernandes said.
“What we have realized over and over again is that housing is a form of violence prevention,” said Julia Spann, SAFE Alliance CEO. “If you don’t have a safe home to go to, it forces you back into unstable and potentially very dangerous housing.
“And I think of it also as homelessness prevention, because the folks we’re serving are folks with children. And we don’t want them to be thinking that normalcy is living in shelters or living on the streets or bouncing in between family member, friend and friend. And so this really is homelessness prevention. It’s violence prevention and all of that work that goes with it,” she continued. “This is a tremendous opportunity, and we’re delighted to be part of the solution.”