Austin pledges backup funding to secure $48M for Esperanza shelter expansion
By Austin Sanders
Published on March 4, 2026.
The Austin City Council has pledged to provide backup funding for a planned expansion of the Esperanza homeless community in Southeast Austin, which could leave the nonprofit that operates the community without raising enough money to support the expansion by 2029. The City Council did not allocate any funds to the Other Ones Foundation, but declared the city's commitment to providing up to $15.6 million in operational funding for the project over the next two years if the nonprofit fails to raise the funds elsewhere. Without this, Mayor Kirk Watson stated that the nonprofit would lose out on $48 million in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs funding. The funding could help meet a dire need for emergency shelter in Austin by building 325 new shelter beds on a seven acre tract adjacent to the current Esperanza community.
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