BG Reads | News You Need to Know (May 16, 2023)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin is opening a temporary homeless shelter in Southeast Austin (Austin Monitor)
In light of a growing need for emergency shelter, Austin is repurposing a city-owned warehouse space in Southeast Austin to temporarily house 300 people experiencing homelessness.In a city memo out late last week, interim City Manager Jesús Garza said a portion of the warehouse near U.S. Highway 183 and State Highway 71 will be converted for shelter space.
The site, known as the Marshalling Yard, was bought and redeveloped in recent years to be a storage space for the Austin Convention Center.
Garza characterized the plan as an “immediate effort,” though no firm timetable was given. The city put out a call Friday for a nonprofit to run the shelter… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Hays CISD students are overdosing on fentanyl. It’s unclear how widespread the problem is. (KUT)
Tim Savoy, chief communications officer for Hays CISD, said although there have been six student deaths in the district, another 22 student overdoses weren't fatal.
“The deaths are horrible, they’re shocking and very scary,” he said. “But when you add in the number of overdoses that we know about … it brings home how big the problem really is.”
It's up to individual school districts to keep track of student deaths and overdoses, which Savoy believes is a huge problem. Districts that choose to dedicate resources to collecting data struggle to get real numbers. Certain factors can complicate things: whether an overdose happened on or off campus, if EMS or police have a record of the incident, or if Narcan was used outside of school… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson addresses DPS, APD partnership being put on hold (KXAN)
Mayor Kirk Watson sent KXAN a statement in response to the partnership being put on hold:
The Texas Department of Public Safety has determined that it needs to deploy additional resources to the border because of the expiration of the federal Title 42 border policy. At the time the partnership was announced, the director of DPS explained that DPS could support and supplement the Austin Police Department because it was able to make Austin a priority. Because of needs that the state sees with the expiration of Title 42, DPS sees the border as a higher priority for its resources at this time.
The partnership has proven what we knew: Austin is seriously understaffed in its police department. The partnership has led to less crime and a reduction in response times when people call for help. We have also been able to re-calibrate it in an effort to address troubling issues and prevent people from feeling targeted, profiled and overpoliced… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
State budget leaders adopt some spending plans for 2024-25 but still no compromise on property taxes, power plants (Texas tribune)
Texas House and Senate negotiators on Monday adopted several state spending priorities, including funding more than $1 billion for state parks and shoring up the governor’s disaster fund, as they inched toward compromise on a two-year budget proposal likely to top $300 billion.
But with two weeks to go before the legislative session adjourns, chief budget writers still have not announced compromises on some of the largest fights and issues facing the Texas Legislature this session: property tax cuts, stabilizing the power grid, broadband expansion, water infrastructure projects, school funding and whether to pay for a private school voucher program, among others… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas GOP’s broadest attempt yet to erode blue cities’ power gets one step closer to becoming law (texas tribune)
Republican state leaders’ broadest effort to prevent Democratic-run cities and counties from enacting progressive policies — which could drastically limit local government’s ability to make rules on areas like labor rights, drought restrictions and even noise complaints — is one step closer to becoming law.
By a 18-13 vote mostly along party lines, the Texas Senate gave preliminary approval Monday to House Bill 2127. The bill must come back before the chamber for a final vote before it heads back to the House to hash out changes made to the bill.
State Sen. Robert Nichols, a Jacksonville Republican and former mayor, was the lone Republican to vote against the bill… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
The Return to the Office Has Stalled (Wall street journal)
Frustration is growing in cities that are suffering from declining real-estate values, setting the stage for lower property tax revenues and pressuring bars, restaurants and other small businesses that rely on five-day-a-week office workers. In New York, each employee working at home rather than going into the office costs city businesses about $4,600 in sales annually, according to WFH Research, a think tank that tracks workplace arrangements.
With employees spending only half the five-day workweek in the office, it isn’t surprising that office return rates stalled out around half of prepandemic levels. The average office usage rate, which crossed 50% of prepandemic levels in late January, has remained around there ever since, according to Kastle Systems. Kastle tracks the return-to-office in 10 major U.S. markets by monitoring security badge swipes.
In Texas, cities continue to have the highest return to office rate, in part because many businesses in the state are among those requiring workers in the office five days a week. In the first week of May, the return rates for Austin and Houston both topped 60%, according to Kastle… (LINK TO FULL STORY)