Judy Silva is a popular chef in her community, has found peace in faith and is almost two years sober. She is feeling great today, she said. But not too long ago, she wasn’t.
“I fell into homelessness when I couldn’t deal with a lot of issues that were going on with my family,” Silva said. “I started using drugs … I wanted my freedom to use when and as much as I wanted.”
Silva lived unsheltered in Austin for five years. After some encouragement from a homeless outreach provider, she applied for housing in 2024. Within weeks, she was staying in a temporary shelter at the city-owned Marshalling Yard before moving into Family Eldercar’s Pecan Gardens, a permanent supportive housing complex for the chronically homeless in northwest Austin, with financial support from the city’s housing voucher program.
“I feel like every day is a brand new day. It’s the rest of my life,” she said. “I don’t live in a dark place anymore.”
Silva is one of over 300 people benefiting from the city’s voucher program that places residents in housing and charges them only 30% of their income. Along with a place to stay, residents are provided support services such as medical care, mental health resources and help navigating day-to-day needs.
The vouchers are funded through Austin’s Housing Trust Fund. But as the city continues making tough budget decisions due to a persistent deficit, the program is on the chopping block. The potential cut comes at a time when the city is increasing homeless encampment clean-ups, raising questions about where Austin’s unhoused residents can go if the program loses funding.
“We as a community need to continue to invest in solutions that work,” said Kate Moore, president of Homelessness Response System Strategy at the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. “We can’t keep our eye off the ball, if at least, continuing to invest in what we’ve committed to already.”
The voucher program supports over 380 people transitioning out of chronic homelessness and into housing. The Housing Authority of the City of Austin, a separate entity, provides an additional 1,000 federally funded vouchers, about 550 of which are in use. The ones not being used are connected to properties under construction and will be assigned to people once the development is complete. The housing authority said those federally funded vouchers are not at risk.
Deletta Dean, director of the City of Austin’s Housing Department, said if next year’s proposed city budget remains unchanged and no additional funding is secured for the housing vouchers, the hundreds of people using them could be displaced.
Austin’s housing voucher program is expected to cost the city $8.8 million in 2026, according to a presentation given to Austin City Council members at the April 21 work session. It would cost $7.8 million to fund it in 2027.
“This is an important program,” Dean said. “Not just because of the fiscal impact, it’s because of 384 individuals that the city of Austin has worked very hard to provide housing (for).”
Dean said several Austin City Council members have expressed support for continuing to fund the program in meetings with staff, despite the ongoing budget crunch.
“It is our responsibility to continue to inform council so that as we go through this budget process, they can make the right decisions in terms of services,” Dean said. “I don’t see 384 people being displaced. How do we solve for that? We’ll have to figure it out.”
Silva said it was a tough adjustment moving into Pecan Gardens after years of living in encampments, but now she says that without the program, she likely wouldn’t be alive.
“There’s going to be a lot out there that are going to need this,” Silva said. “Not every story is going to end bad.”
