August 5, 2018 – Statesman.Com — The Austin-Travis County Sobering Center will open for limited hours in late August before it officially launches in October, Executive Director Rhonda Patrick says. The Austin-Travis County Sobering Center will open its doors on a limited basis in late August before it officially launches in October.
The center, designed to give law enforcement and emergency medical staff an alternative destination for intoxicated individuals other than jail or a hospital, will be open 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Thursday through Saturday starting Aug. 23, Patrick told Travis County commissioners at their Tuesday meeting. And just in time for the Austin City Limits Festival, the center, at 1213 Sabine Street, the site of the former Travis County medical examiner’s facility, will be open 24/7 starting Oct. 1, she said.
More than 2,000 people a year are booked into jail in Travis County for public intoxication, according to the sobriety center’s website. One of the center’s main goals is to save time and money tied to bookings for public intoxication and unnecessary emergency room visits.
“Before the sobering center, (law enforcement) only really had three choices (upon witnessing public intoxication): ignore, jail or the emergency room,” Patrick said. “So now we’re really creating a whole separate opportunity where they can have a place where they can bring people.”
Patrick stressed that the facility will not be an alcohol or drug treatment center, but its staff will connect individuals in need of treatment with support services. They also will screen individuals to make sure that they are not struggling with some other issue, such as a mental illness, that might have been conftised for intoxication, she said.
The costs of the center are being shared by Travis County and the city of Austin. The city, which will contribute $1.7 million annually, plans to seek grants and private funds in the future. The county provided the building and paid for $887,000 in renovations.
“It’s been a long time coming,” County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. “We’re so happy to be at this moment.” County Commissioner Brigid Shea said she was thrilled the center was approaching its opening date. “I really think it’s a huge addition to the whole range of public health services in the community,” Shea said. On Tuesday, commissioners, including Gerald Daugherty, expressed surprise about the projected makeup of the center’s users.
Patrick said she expects 75 percent will be one-time users, such as college students, convention goers and festival attendees, and the other 25 percent will be repeat users, such as people with chronic substance use problems, who might be homeless or have critical health care needs and mental health diagnoses.
The estimates are based on data shared by existing sobriety centers in the U.S., she said, and take into account the large numbers of students and tourists who come through Austin as well as individuals experiencing homelessness and substance-use issues.
Daugherty asked if the center would be charging individuals, and Patrick said the center has enough funding to cover its costs and keep the service free. “Well, Rhonda, that’s going to be a problem for me,” Daugherty said. “Especially since I just found out that maybe 70, 75 percent may be just revelers. You got that money to go and get intoxicated wherever it is, then you have enough money to pay something. The funding that you have right now are public dollars.”
Patrick said she would be willing to have a conversation with Daugherty and other commissioners about challenges related to the center’s funding model. Shea raised the idea that the county’s health district, Central Health, contribute funding.
“We’re much less expensive than the costs around uncompensated emergency room care and law enforcement and jail care, but it still is a cost to the community,” Patrick said. “Absolutely I’m very open to us looking at all the ways we can all share in that cost.”
