Partner With Us

Our community is stronger when we work together. Investors, philanthropists, property owners, service providers, data scientists, community advocates – there’s a need for all of us to work alongside our unhoused neighbors to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and one-time.

If you or your organization is interested in joining the Austin/Travis County Homelessness Response System, please explore ways to get involved below, then complete the short interest form questionnaire on this page. An appropriate ECHO staff member will contact you to discuss next steps for your individual situation.

 

Photo of the Austin skyline from a low perspective on Lady Bird Lake with people paddle boarding and kayaking in the sunshine

Ways to Get Involved

  • Are you already serving people experiencing homelessness or are you interested in becoming a service provider?

    There is always a continued need for organizations to provide access to our community’s resources, including:

  • Are you a developer/property owner and interested in contributing housing units to help people exit homelessness?

    There is an enormous need for housing units for individuals exiting homelessness. ECHO works within the private housing market, with federally subsidized complexes, and with City of Austin funded projects to access housing. All individuals we place have access to case management and wrap around services, and ECHO can offer financial packages to help mitigate potential risks to your investments. We would love to start a conversation about how we can incorporate your housing units into the homeless response system.

  • Are you a philanthropist/investor and want to contribute to our community’s programs and resources?

    Our community relies on several funding sources to scale up housing and work toward our collective goal of ending homelessness. Recent one-time spikes in government funding through local allocations of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars are much-needed steps toward correcting decades of disinvestment in homelessness services and affordable housing. But even this influx falls short of meeting the true need in our community.

    In addition, grants and government allocations typically come with requirements for how funds are used. Providers often need to be nimble to best serve people experiencing homelessness, and relying only on restricted funds leaves gaps in services. Private investment and philanthropy provide the ability to fill these gaps. If you’re interested in learning more about some of these gaps and what can help fill them, we’d love to talk to you.

  • Are you a community advocate interested in ways to get involved personally?

    We know what it takes to end homelessness in our community, and we need everyone pulling in the same direction to get there. Advocates like you are central to this mission, whether you’re writing to your elected representatives, volunteering with one of our community’s service providers, or learning more about homelessness in our community. Check out our Advocacy Hub to get started with some ideas. Have other ideas or questions about how to get involved? Fill out the form below.

  • Are you interested in researching homelessness related questions or evaluating homelessness services?

    If you’re interested in researching a question related to homelessness or evaluating local homelessness services, please reach out! Check out some of our reports here and our dashboard here. If you would like aggregated information or statistics based on HMIS data, please use the data request form. And if you’re interested in digging deeper into the data or have research or evaluation questions that don’t rely on HMIS data, please email us at REinfo@austinecho.org or fill out the form below.

Don’t see your situation listed here but still want to get involved? No problem! Fill out the form with as much information as you can and we’ll be in touch.

Partnership Interest Form

Thank you for your interest in joining the Austin/Travis County homeless response system. The form below will assist ECHO in connecting you and your organization to the proper avenues. Please expect that it may take up to 2 weeks for a staff member to get in touch. We look forward to speaking with you.
A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a database used to record and track client-level information on the characteristics and service needs of people experiencing homelessness. An HMIS ties together homeless service providers within a community to help create a coordinated and effective housing and service delivery system.
The Coordinated Entry System is an approach of coordination and management of a crisis response system’s resources that allows users to make consistent decisions from available information to efficiently and effectively connect people to housing and service interventions that will rapidly end their homelessness. Through coordinated entry, a CoC ensures that the highest need, most vulnerable households in the community are prioritized for housing and services first.