Austin housing staff outline $137.2M city investment and pipeline for permanent supportive housing

At the Feb. 5, 2025 Austin City Council Public Health Committee meeting, interim Housing Director Manny DiMaio briefed members on the city’s permanent supportive housing (PSH) pipeline, recent grant awards and the financing and timeline challenges for delivering units at scale.

DiMaio said the city was recently notified of two major funding items: approximately $14,000,000 in Continuum of Care (CoC) funding coordinated through ECHO and a one-time Pro Housing Grant award of about $6,700,000 to be administered by the Housing Department over six years. She also summarized the city’s recurring federal block grants—CDBG, HOME, HOPWA and ESG—totaling roughly $14,000,000 per year, which the Housing Department and Austin Public Health administer in different combinations.

DiMaio described three components required for site-based PSH—capital to build housing, wraparound services and an ongoing operating or rental subsidy—and said the city currently has about 300 operational PSH units and a pipeline that will yield roughly 1,107 PSH units overall. She told…