AUSTIN, Texas – In the aftermath of a severe winter storm, city officials in Austin have reported an unprecedented surge in the number of individuals seeking refuge at cold weather shelters over the weekend.
David Gray, director of Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations, stated, “At our peak, we saw over 850 clients using our cold weather shelter operation, which is an all-time record for the City of Austin.” With temperatures plummeting below 20 degrees, many individuals sought warmth at the One Texas Center located on Barton Springs Road.
This facility serves as a registration point for clients, who are then transported to various warming shelters throughout the city. Gray recounted a harrowing incident where a man arrived in a critical state, unable to move due to severe cold exposure. “We had a guy who came in who literally couldn’t move parts of his body. They were frozen in place. Our staff had to work with him and EMS to help him warm up,” Gray explained. After about 15 minutes, the man was stabilized and subsequently taken to a hospital.
The harsh weather conditions also had tragic consequences. In a separate incident, authorities discovered a body near a gas station in North Austin, with Mayor Kirk Watson indicating that hypothermia was the suspected cause of death. Gray expressed the profound sadness felt by officials when a client passes away: “Every time we have a client who passes away, it breaks our hearts. It’s devastating.”
Austin’s One Texas Center alone welcomed 850 individuals, prompting the city to open multiple additional locations to accommodate the influx. “On a typical cold weather shelter activation, we’ll open between two or three sites. For this activation, we had seven,” Gray noted.
To ensure that the shelters were well-equipped and clients were nourished, the Central Texas Food Bank played a crucial role, preparing meals from scratch for four warming shelters during the storm. “As of tomorrow morning, we will have served more than 5,000 meals at those locations,” said Beth Corbett, the VP of Government Affairs and Advocacy for the Central Texas Food Bank. She added that preparations began well in advance of the storm to ensure timely meal delivery.
Austin’s overnight cold weather shelters will remain operational around the clock until Wednesday morning, with regular cold weather shelter operations resuming Wednesday evening. Registration for those in need takes place each evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the One Texas Center located at 505 Barton Springs Road.
