On the same day Austin's second homeless strategy officer sent an email to her boss saying she planned to resign, Austin City Council member Mackenzie Kelly sent an email imploring Interim City Manager Jesús Garza to investigate living conditions at the city-operated Northbridge homeless shelter based on disturbing photos and videos shown to Kelly by a whistleblower at the facility.
Andrea Gipson, a city employee hired in April 2022 as a program supervisor for the Austin Public Health Department, said she was placed on administrate leave July 31 after complaining about the state of the shelter.
Frustrated, Gipson told the American-Statesman Thursday she took the photos and videos she had recorded throughout 2023 to Kelly.
The American-Statesman reviewed some of the photos and videos captured by Gipson, which show housing units strewn with drugs and drug paraphernalia throughout trashed rooms, a gun and employees asleep on the job.
One of the videos shows a room with an overturned bed, multiple cigarette butts scattered across a desk, and open food containers and debris on the floor.
In Kelly's email to Garza and other city employees – she raises concerns about drug use, firearms and possible overdose deaths occurring in the North Austin shelter.
In the email, which was obtained by the American-Statesman, Kelly described the conditions of the shelter based on what she had been shown.
"It has come to my attention that there have been several deaths within the facility,...
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