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Advocates urge council to keep budget amendment funding for harm-reduction drop-in center
Summary
Community advocates told the Austin Public Health Committee that a budget amendment intended to fund a harm-reduction drop-in center is being redirected to Integral Care; they asked committee members to help ensure funds go to the drop-in center as originally intended.
Community advocates who pushed for a budget amendment last summer told the Austin Public Health Committee that the funds intended to support Austin’s only harm-reduction drop-in center are being redirected to Integral Care and asked council members to restore the original intent.
Kate Graziani of Vocal said the amendment originated with the community and the Community Investment Budget Coalition and “was intended to be an investment into our harm reduction drop in center, our one and only harm reduction drop in center, as part of our overdose prevention efforts.” She told the committee the drop-in center’s peer-based model fills “one of the biggest gaps” in the city’s overdose-prevention system.
Maggie Luna of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, who later spoke during public comment, said the drop-in center serves 60 to 70 people a day with a three-person staff team composed of people with lived experience. “Each year, we hear that our supplies have reversed several hundreds of overdoses,” Luna said, describing on-site interventions that staff members have used to revive people who were not breathing.
Graziani said she and Luna had learned that the amendment funds were being redirected and asked the committee and the amendment’s sponsors to ensure the money is spent on drop-in center infrastructure rather than being allocated elsewhere. Chair Vanessa Fuentes told advocates she had spoken with Director Adrienne Stirrup and that a meeting was scheduled later that day to discuss the issue further.
Committee members did not take formal action on the request during the meeting. The record shows advocates asked the committee to support the community’s intent and to help ensure the amendment funds go to the drop-in center’s infrastructure rather than being reallocated.
Background and context: Advocates said the drop-in center provides casework, connections to housing, medical care and testing (HIV/HCV), respite referrals and other services and that the site’s peer staff often intervene in overdose emergencies. The advocates asked for continued city support as operating costs and local rents rise.
No formal vote or funding reallocation was recorded on the committee floor during the meeting; staff said they would continue discussions with advocates and departmental leadership.
Ending: Committee members thanked the speakers for their comments and noted staff would discuss the matter with advocates and department leadership later the same day. No committee directive or formal motion about the amendment was recorded in the transcript.
