First look inside Austin's recently purchased homeless shelter, former Salvation Army building
The City of Austin will rent the building for a year and then agreed to purchase the shelter after that lease was up.
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- City of Austin leaders allowed media members inside the newly renovated former Salvation Army homeless shelter downtown. The City of Austin will rent the building for a year and then agreed to purchase the shelter after that lease was up.
The shelter will serve women and people who are transgender, according to City leaders.
"A lot of the staff that will be here are also women and transgender so it gives our clients a change to interface daily with people who are similar to them and have similar experiences that they do," said David Gray, Austin's homeless strategy officer.
David Gray, Austin's homeless strategy officer, shows media a gathering space inside the renovated 8th Street shelter (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) 
Inside the former Salvation Army downtown building, now being used by the City of Austin as a shelter for women and people who are transgender (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) 
Inside the former Salvation Army downtown building, now being used by the City of Austin as a shelter for women and people who are transgender (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) 
The kitchen inside Austin's renovated 8th street homeless shelter (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) 
Inside the former Salvation Army downtown building, now being used by the City of Austin as a shelter for women and people who are transgender (KXAN photo/Grace Reader)
People staying there will receive wrap-around services, including help finding employment, getting identification and mental health treatment.
The shelter will have at least 65 clients in December 2023. By the end of March 2024, the shelter will have space to accommodate up to 150 clients, the city said. Operations will begin Thursday.
"Because this is a space for women and transgender clients and we know that we have some of those clients in our other facilities, we've begun conversations with those clients about moving them into this shelter and that allows us to open beds at other facilities for men or for other clients in our population who also need to be served," Gray said.
The former shelter is located downtown on Red River Street just west of the APD headquarters. It will cost the city $15 million to purchase the space, KXAN reported previously.
Darrell Alexander, the director of the building services department, said it cost less than $450,000 to renovate the space.
"One of the things that we first started doing was looking at the mechanical. So we looked at HVAC systems, we looked at the plumbing, we also looked at the electrical. We had to get those up to a certain standard before we could bring anyone in here safely," Alexander said.
The space was previously run by the Salvation Army, who announced earlier this year that it was discontinuing services at that location.