Front Steps

Based on the belief that all people deserve the dignity of a safe place to call home, Front Steps’ mission is to provide a pathway home through shelter, affordable housing, and community education.

Description:
Front Steps manages the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless (ARCH) and the Central Texas Recuperative Care Center.

The ARCH serves as an entry point into the homeless services system. People can participate in services, receive information, meet their basic needs and start to transition out of homelessness.

ARCH services includes showers, laundry, lockers, phone and mail messaging as well as extensive information and referrals to address a wide range of needs to almost 10,000 unduplicated clients in Austin/Travis County. An emergency overnight mens shelter is open seven days a week and provides sleeping spaces for 175 men.

The Central Texas Recuperative Care Project is a collaboration between Front Steps, St. David’s Community Health Foundation, and the St. David’s and Seton hospital systems. Homeless clients who are too sick to be discharged to a shelter or the streets, but not sick enough to warrant acute hospital placement, are placed in a nursing home for the duration of their illness. Front Steps provides intensive case management to address income, housing, and self-care needs.

History:
Front Steps was organized as a non-profit in 1997 in response to a recommendation of the Community Action Network's 1996 Comprehensive Plan for Addressing Homelessness to create an emergency shelter to serve as the first point of entry into services for homeless individuals. At its beginnings, ARCH was a day resource center that served 1,500 unduplicated clients per year. Today ARCH is a 24-hour full-service center that provides pathways and portals out of shelters and into permanent housing. Last year, we served close to 9,000 people.

Contact people:

Dawn Perkins, Volunteer Coordinator, (512) 305-4174, (email) Amber Fogarty, Director Of Development And Communications, (512) 305-4156, (email) Helen Varty, Executive Director, (512) 305-4107, (email)

Office fax number: (512) 482-0071

Address:

500 East Seventh Austin, TX 78701 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.frontsteps.org

Directions:

Located downtown Austin at East Seventh and Neches.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: n/a For maps or information, please see http://www.capmetro.org/riding/trip_info.asp

Last updated on July 13, 2009