About Office of Sustainability This post is sponsored by our community partner, the Office of Sustainability, the city department that is working toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a healthy & just local food system, and climate resiliency. Action Box Click the badge above to fill out the Austin/Travis County Food Plan Draft Survey. This post is sponsored by the City of Austin Office of Sustainability. All Austin Common sponsors are screened by The Austin Common team to ensure they’re doing good for their employees, our community, and the planet. A draft of our region ..read more

Our podcast mini-series on homelessness continues with a focus on emergency shelter, which is meant to provide people with a safe place to sleep (temporarily), while they work to get connected to more permanent housing. But in Austin, we don’t have enough emergency shelter beds, which can mean long wait lists, just to find a place to sleep that isn’t outside.   How do our shelters deal with this? And how does emergency shelter in Austin work anyway? To help answer these questions, host Amy Stansbury spoke with Max Moscoe and David Gomez of The Other Ones Foundation (which runs Esperanza ..read more

This episode of the The Austin Common Radio Hour kicks off a mini-series on homelessness in Austin. In this first episode, we focus on some of the first steps a person experiencing homelessness might take on their path toward receiving services and eventually gaining access to housing…. visiting the Sunrise Hub (a homelessness services day center in south Austin) and taking a Coordinated Assessment (which is both a wait list and a prioritization tool for determining who gets access to subsidized or supportive housing services).   But what happens when that wait list is really long? To h ..read more

About CapMetro This post is sponsored by our community partner, CapMetro, Austin's regional public transportation provider. Action Box Try public transit during SXSW! This post is sponsored by CapMetro. All Austin Common sponsors are screened by The Austin Common team to ensure they’re doing good for their employees, our community, and the planet. SXSW 2024 is here! Learn the best ways to get around town with this guide, created in collaboration with CapMetro.  Check out the complete SXSW transit map here.  Download the CapMetro App here.  Downloa ..read more

On December 7th, Austin City Council will vote on the HOME Initiative, a proposal to allow up to three housing units to be built on single-family lots. The idea is to increase the city’s supply of “missing middle” housing, but like so many debates related to housing and land use, the issue is complicated.   In this episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour, host Amy Stansbury interviews several people with an array of perspectives on the issue – Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool, Carmen Llanes (Executive Director of Go Austin/Vamos Austin and a former Austin Planning Commissioner), a ..read more

Summary Early voting in the Texas primaries has begun. Action Box Don't forget to vote! Early voting lasts from Feb. 20th to March 1st and Election Day is March 5th. The primaries are here!  Here’s what you need to know…    PS – For more information about all of these races and candidates, be sure to check out the League of Women Voters Guide.  Here is your election website if you live in Travis County, Williamson County, or Hays County.  KUT has a good story about the Travis County District Attorney candidates, which you can read here.  ..read more

Summary Austin has several different ways for measuring how many people in our community are experiencing homelessness. Action Box Donate or volunteer with a local nonprofit organization that serves those experiencing homelessness in our community. Homelessness. It’s one of the biggest issues facing our community. That’s why we’re kicking off a series on homelessness, examining how our city’s homelessness response system works, where the gaps are, and what our elected officials, nonprofit leaders, and community members are doing to address the crisis.    To start off the ..read more

Summary Our annual list of ways you can make a difference in the new year. Action Box Pick one of the action items below and make a positive impact on our local community in 2024! Looking for a way make a positive impact in 2024? Keep scrolling for some ideas! And remember to subscribe to our weekly newsletter or follow us on Instagram for updates on ways to get involved in our local community all year long.  You can take the survey here.  You can learn more about what VDRs do here and sign up for a training here.  You can learn more about the Jan. 23 m ..read more

About The Author This post is sponsored & written by The Office of Sustainability, the city department that is working toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a healthy & just local food system, and climate resiliency. Action Box Click the badge above to read SUSTAIN THE MAG. This post is sponsored by the City of Austin Office of Sustainability. (It was originally published on the city’s website on October 19th.) All Austin Common sponsors are screened by The Austin Common team to ensure they’re doing good for their employees, customers, our community, and the planet. M ..read more

Summary Austin City Council is voting on the HOME initiative on December 7th. Action Box Have thoughts on the HOME Initiative? Click on the badge above to sign up to speak at the December 7th Council meeting. On December 7th, Austin City Council will vote on the HOME Initiative, a proposal to allow up to three housing units to be built on single-family lots. The idea is to increase the city’s supply of “missing middle” housing, but like so many debates related to housing and land use, the issue is confusing and complicated.   That’s why we’ve broken down all the basics for ya ..read more