we continue to fight THE NEW ROLE OF PROP Q

Thanks to everyone that participated in the last few weeks of community events and conversations leading to the disappointing City Council vote on October 9th to proceed with the 100% UNBUDGETED nav center relocation.

Thank you to CMs Qadri, Velasquez and Duchen for actually considering Austin constituents in your opposition to acquiring the nav center site without the proper plan and community input.

👀 KEEP READING.

Our Current Focus: Prop Q

In addition to the HSO’s 2025-2026 $101M budget plan including $0 budgeted for "Relocate existing Nav. Center" and "Open at least two more Nav Centers" for their acquisition, capital improvements and operating expenses 🤯 we find the HSO plan is already short $50M. This brings us to the COA overall budget, its deficit and Prop Q vote to raise our property taxes, forever.

  • COA approved a $6.3B budget for 2025-2026
  • $3B going to things like the new convention center; so let’s start looking at this like a business, shall we? 📈
  • At the end of the budget plan, COA confirms the $6B includes a $33M city deficit 📉
  • Why rev down resulting in a deficit? A main contributor is “sales tax revenue” is down - one would infer Austinites are being more conscientious of their spending in a time of financial stress. 💸 Keep that in mind as you continue reading.
  • Instead of adjusting the plan to work within our means, the City is trying to raise $110M far above the $33M deficit of what’s needed. ¿Qué? 🤔
  • $50M of that $110M is to fund HSO (how we got dialed in - see below if more details needed)
  • The remaining ~$60M is to fund some other things… and depending on how you consider a budget - like a bucket of funds - you might pitch those $110M to be compassionate services to reduce homelessness OR partial construction costs for the new Convention Center. The reality: it's all in the $6B budget (which is short) so pick your $110M; are there different kinds of dollars I don’t know about?!? 😳
  • In order to “fundraise” those $110M, the City is asking tax payers to increase our property taxes - indefinitely - 20% through the Prop Q vote. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
  • This is ON TOP of other tax hikes happening that aren't triggering a vote (+9.12% for Travis County, +9.31% for Travis County Central Health - see below).
  • This is ON TOP of other city/utilities expenses that are also confirmed to increase about $115 per median household (see screenshot below).

So what does this mean for you?

Property taxes are paid by Commercial and Residential property owners. If you RENT or SHOP or DINE, etc. around town, these places that serve you will have to pass these costs through to their customers. So even if you don't directly pay property taxes, you can expect RENT to go up, and day-to-day LIVING expenses to also go up to make up for the increase everyone is absorbing.

For property owners, we recommend you check your 2024 Tax Receipt here and do your own math. But if so inclined, check our own calculator and model with a few property value scenarios below.

www.saveaustinnow.com

Origin Story: The Relocation of the Sunrise Navigation Center

The City of Austin is fast-tracking a relocation of the controversial Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center — currently under state lawsuit for harms to children and neighbors near its existing site — into a new South Austin neighborhood near multiple schools with over 6,000+ students.

WTF IS GOING ON? KEEP READING.

Children, Safety, and the Sunrise Homeless Center Relocation to our Community

This site shares what we’ve learned to date: the background on the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center; the broken process driving its accelerated move into our community; first-hand interactions with local officials and the Homeless Strategy Office that start to raise real concern in the face of community opposition; the predictable risks we can anticipate as lived by the Joslin Elementary community; and the sheer fact that COA and Homeless Strategy Office have offered NO PLAN to date on how they intend to mitigate the known risks of the current center, yet feel it's ready for initial vote and $4M+ of tax dollars to put the wheels in motion.

Here you’ll find the facts—aggregated and summarized with full links and resources—alongside ways to take action and sworn accounts that show exactly what’s at stake for our children, our schools, and our neighborhood. Review them yourself, share them widely, stay engaged, and check back regularly.

The Situation

The relocation of the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center is being driven by a state civil lawsuit claiming the facility is a public nuisance, citing rampant drug use, violence, and public safety threats that endanger students at nearby Joslin Elementary. The legal process was accelerated after a string of dramatic incidents — including a violent stabbing at Sunrise and a Joslin student struck by a used hypodermic needle on the playground — which led the district court judge to set an expedited Temporary Injunction hearing aimed specifically at accelerating the relocation of Sunrise’s services.

In response, the City has moved quickly to identify a new site: the South Austin Housing Navigation Center at 2401 S. I-35 Service Road, 78741. Promoted as a “brick-and-mortar hub for housing stabilization and essential support,” this facility would relocate the very same model now under legal challenge directly into the Travis Heights community.

The new location's proximity to schools located in our community:

  1. 0.2 miles from Travis High (~1,200 students, ages 14 to 18)
  2. 0.7 miles from Travis Heights Elementary (~500 students, ages 3 months to 11 years)
  3. 1.0 mile from Linder Elementary (~550 students, ages 3 years to 11 years)
  4. 0.7 miles from Hillside Early Child Center (~70 students, daycare for infants and toddlers)
  5. 1.0 miles from Lively Middle (~1,000 students, ages 11 to 14 years)
  6. 1.0 miles from St. Edward’s (~3,400 students, ages 18 to 25+)

👉 That's 6,700 infants, toddlers, children, teens, and college students within ~1 mile of the proposed site.

The Real Risks

The “real risks” are not hypothetical—they are drawn from sworn affidavits and under-oath testimony describing what Joslin Elementary students, faculty, families and surrounding community endured living next to the Sunrise Navigation Center: needle stick injuries, open drug use, sexual activity in public, repeated school lockdowns, and violent incidents. A fuller set of excerpts, data points, and lived experiences can be found in the Resources section below, where all source documents are shared for you to review directly.

  1. Imminent Health and Safety Risks: A Joslin Elementary student suffered a needlestick injury on the playground during the first week of school (Aug 2025). Used needles, drug paraphernalia, and human feces are repeatedly found on or near school property and adjacent Joslin Park and playground.
  2. Imminent Safety Risks: A specific incident occurred during the 2023-24 school year where a homeless person gained access into the school during school hours. This individual had to be escorted out while kicking and screaming expletives in front of pre-K students. Other reports of trespassing and sleeping on school grounds (including near entrances), and engaging in vandalism like throwing rocks through windows. Important Note: In the first few weeks of the THES 2025-2026 school year, APD and AISD have already been called multiple times to report and remove individuals on-campus and adjacent to campus (one without pants on) during school hours.
  3. Violent Incidents and School Lockdowns: Violent activities, including a man being stabbed at Sunrise in broad daylight, necessitate the repeated placement of the school into “lockdown” mode due to threats and dangerous behavior in the immediate vicinity. There are reports of Sunrise clients gaining access and entering the school. Important Note: Travis Heights Elementary School has already executed one "lockdown" incident due to a homeless person threatening an Austin Parks employee at the adjacent Big Stacy Pool in the first few weeks of of the 2025-2026 school year.
  4. Exposure to Open Drug Use and Fentanyl: The center serves known drug addicts and has allowed their clients engaging in prolific, open drug use on-property, despite the location's 200 foot proximity to Joslin Elementary and the in-effect 1,000 foot drug-free school zone through Texas Health & Safety Code § 481.134. Police found individuals near the school-adjacent park possessing 50 lethal doses of fentanyl. Important Note: Travis Early College High School is <700 feet from the center's newly proposed site location.
  5. Exposure to Public Lewd/Vile Conduct: Students and staff witness individuals engaging in acts such as walking around naked, fornicating in public, and public urination/defecation immediately adjacent to the school grounds and neighborhood.
  6. Psychological Distress and Insecurity: The constant activity creates a “crisis” and an “environment of fear” in the community. A Joslin staff member stated, “Students have told me they do not feel safe at Joslin Elementary”

The (Broken) Process

The process surrounding the acquisition of a potential site and the forced relocation of the existing Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center involves a significant deviation from typical city procedures, precipitated by emergency judicial intervention.

In Travis Heights residents' direct conversations with David Gray, Homeless Strategy Officer, it was confirmed that:

  • Under Contract: The new site location is currently under contract to the City of Austin - as of September 19th - in advance of any City Council vote.
  • Deviation from Process: The HSO explicitly acknowledged not following the typical process for this property proposal. Normally, property acquisition proposals would have fully developed Use Plans presented simultaneously, allowing for a comprehensive review of both the asset purchase and the proposed operational plan. In this case, the City is asking Council to spend funds without a plan for the intended use.

The urgency surrounding the acquisition process is due to the external forcing function created by the State of Texas lawsuit and the subsequent judicial intervention, imposing immediate deadlines on relocation to our community. Despite this, the below votes are required for the City to proceed with this plan to relocate the center to our community:

  • October 9: City Council vote to acquire the property
  • TBD: A second/third City Council vote - undisclosed at this time to the public - to approve the land-use of the property and the contractor for the Lease Agreement.

The Basis of Our Growing Concerns

1. The Shift In Narrative: RELO or NO RELO? RELO!

Over the last week we've heard the Homeless Strategy Office (HSO) explicitly state in-person and in a webinar - both with District 9 residents, parents and businesses - that this is NOT an "relocation" and any mention of that is "misinformation".

We come to you with their words (not ours) AND an HSO presentation from April 2025 to demonstrate the shift in narrative we believe is intentional to soften the very real community fears, suppress the now very vocal opposition and fast-track through a City Council vote.

Our voting Council Members deserve the truth as the basis of their vote to cast next week, and SO DO YOU - the Austin public. The following are excerpts from the Austin American Statesman article from July 28, 2025:

  • “We feel very confident that we have zeroed in on a location that ultimately will be a good fit to move the existing navigation center and those services to,” - CM Ryan Alter
  • Alter said discussions about relocating the homeless center began “well before” Paxton’s lawsuit
  • The city has narrowed down a relocation site outside Alter’s South Austin district, he said, but a purchase agreement has not been signed.
  • “It was very clear that if we were going to move this operation, they didn't have the money to go buy a new site, and so the city was going to have to play a big part in that,” Alter said.
  • "David Gray, Austin’s Homeless Strategy Officer, said in an interview Tuesday that if the relocation is approved, most services would likely move to the new location" 🤔
HSO Presentation “Relocate Existing Nav. Center” 🤔

2. Lack of Transparency / Don't Ack Our Questions

  • We demonstrated with DATA that the HSO's criteria and inputs to determine the appropriate site location (as shared on community webinars and in-person session) are inherently flawed and selective over and over again; it begs the question on what else in their model is flawed, incomplete or incorrect.
  • We have lots of questions - which are sadly NOT getting selected for public acknowledgement or answers. See how we attempted in an HSO webinar below. 👎
We want transparency: please show us your criteria, input values and outcome values.

How Else to Engage

If this is as concerning to you as it is to us - PLEASE take action. A few ideas below:

  1. Sign the Petition
  2. Speak at the October 9th City Council session/vote; Registration opens Monday, October 6th @ 10 AM and closes Wednesday, October 8th @ 12 PM. Register here for Agenda Item "Financial Services - Real Estate, Item 17"
  3. Email Homeless Strategy Office (HSO)
  4. Contact ALL City Council members and Mayor to register your opposition (full contact roster below)
  5. Talk to neighbors and friends, share this link: https://bit.ly/travisheightsatrisk

Mayor and City Council Contact Roster:

  • Mayor Kirk Watson ➡ Contact
  • District 1 — Natasha Harper-Madison ➡ Contact
  • District 2 — Vanessa Fuentes ➡ Contact
  • District 3 — José Velásquez ➡ Contact (District 3, South of Oltorf)
  • District 4 — José “Chito” Vela ➡ Contact
  • District 5 — Ryan Alter ➡ Contact
  • District 6 — Krista Laine ➡ Contact
  • District 7 — Mike Siegel ➡ Contact
  • District 8 — Paige Ellis ➡ Contact
  • District 9 — Zohaib “Zo” Qadri ➡ Contact (District 9, Travis Heights)
  • District 10 — Marc Duchen ➡ Contact

Expanded Excerpts from Joslin Elementary Community's Lived Experiences

You are encouraged to come to your own conclusions, but do not overlook these documented experiences of our neighbors.

1. Direct Physical Danger to Children:

  • On August 20, 2025, a Joslin Elementary School student was struck by a used hypodermic needle on the school playground; this incident occurred less than four days after a violent stabbing at Sunrise.
  • School staff regularly find used needles on school property.
  • Police reports confirm finding needles and feces on the children’s playground in school-adjacent Joslin Park, and observed individuals doing drugs in the park. In one alarming incident, police discovered individuals in the park with 50 lethal doses of fentanyl.
  • Sunrise Shelter serves documented sex offenders, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety's online database.

2. Student Exposure:

  • Students as young as four years old, along with staff, have been forced to witness individuals walking around naked, fornicating in public, relieving themselves in public (urination and defecation), and openly engaging in drug use.
  • Parents describe their terror for their children's safety, with one reporting being chased and yelled at by an individual, leaving her daughter "in tears".
  • Faculty have explicitly stated, "Students have told me they do not feel safe at Joslin Elementary because of what happens outside the school".

3. School Disruptions and Lockdowns:

There have been repeated incidents that have forced Joslin Elementary School to enter into "lockdown" status. School Incidents between April 2023 and July 2024 include:

  • A homeless person gaining access to the school, kicking and screaming expletives in front of pre-K students.
  • An altercation with a knife drawn at Sunrise, forcing the school into a "secure" setting.
  • A Sunrise client throwing rocks through three school windows.
  • A Sunrise client sleeping in front of a school entrance, pounding her head on a window, and urinating on the ground.
  • Approximately 10 homeless persons fighting at Sunrise, forcing the school into "secure" mode during school hours.

4. Drug-use, Indecent Exposure, Sanitation

  • In 2023, THRA distributed almost 300,000 clean syringes at Sunrise, yet only disposed of less than 14,500.
  • Residents regularly find used needles, drug paraphernalia, human waste, and used condoms in yards, landscaping, front doors, and public parks. One resident recounts cleaning up "two giant trash bags" of waste three times a week, including "used needles and undergarments filled with feces".
  • Witnessing public urination, defecation, and masturbation is a common occurrence in parks, streets, and near businesses. One resident observed a naked man walking through Joslin Park two months prior to November 2024, and another publicly defecating in the presence of her three-year-old grandchildren.
  • The area within 1,000 feet of public schools and playgrounds is legally designated as drug-free. Joslin Elementary is within 200 feet of the Sunrise Center.

5. Crime and Behavior in Surrounding Community

  • A noted "increase in vehicle burglary and assault incidences" in Sunrise’s immediate vicinity.
  • Incidents include an individual "running around the area with a rod in his hand," "swinging it around," and yelling that he wanted to kill himself.
  • Residents have observed individuals brandishing machetes in close proximity to Sunrise and near elementary school entrances.
  • Businesses reported dealing with "verbal assaults," being "spit on," and one owner was "physically attacked" after confronting an individual who threw a brick through his restaurant's window.
  • A senior living community next door experienced a homeless man approaching a senior resident, and later yelling and swearing at the resident's daughter. Used needles were found only feet away.
  • Patrons from "transient camps" adjacent to Sunrise have approached female shoppers at Randall's while "actively masturbating" and grabbing them, with one incident involving crystal meth.

6. Property Damage Reports

  • Residents' homes have been broken into multiple times, with one homeowner experiencing five break-ins in three years. These break-ins left homes "ransacked," with shattered glass and "kitchen knives with blood on them".
  • Businesses have suffered "thousands of dollars" in damages due to broken windows and break-ins. A local church had its glass doors broken multiple times and saw people "trying to light fires under the doors and on the front doorbell camera".
  • Residents share constantly finding "drug paraphernalia, needles, and trash along the side of [their] house," and have found "used needles at [their] front door and drug kit paraphernalia in [their] landscaping".
  • Some reports of vacant homes accessed to "set up meth labs".

7. Noise and Disturbances

Residents are "constantly awoken at night by screaming, high and intoxicated homeless people". One resident had to call the police about a person beating on her door in the middle of the night, "alternating between saying ‘I’ll kill you’ and begging to ‘let him in’".

Sep 25th Event: Thank You and Next Steps

Thank you to everyone from Travis Heights Elementary School, SRCC, EROC, ENUFT, and the local community who joined us on September 25th. We counted 100 people and were ENCOURAGED by the positivity and productivity of the event, despite the setbacks. We’re digitizing the group brainstorms and will share them here soon — as well as with our Council Members and HSO to ensure your voices shape the next steps.

We continue to aggregate questions for our Council Members and HSO here.

Links and Resources

COA has already communicated their plans - in a legal forum - to accelerate the relocation to our neighborhood
  • September 17, 2025: Fox7 Austin reporting on the relocation progress, including a quote from CM Ryan Alter"This organization does great work, it needs a location that is big enough, a location that is a little more insulated from the neighborhood and the parks and the schools and I think that's what we found here... we're talking to neighbors, you know, we want to make sure that they ultimately are comfortable with this, but it is our intention to move forward should that process play itself out, and we get that type of full community buy-in and make sure this is the right acquisition for the city,"
  • Current HSO Project Website for the new site location

Please check this site regularly - we will continue to update our findings, events, resources and new ways to engage.

#ATXRealHeal is a coalition of neighbors, parents, and businesses united by compassion and committed to safety. We believe both are true: vulnerable people deserve essential services, and families and schools deserve safety. By demanding transparency, stronger planning, and real accountability, we can — and must — do better to create solutions that truly heal Austin.

CREATED BY
Morgan M.