Community Resilience Initiative – Item 22
Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 9:05 am
Colleagues:
On May 7, we are introducing an initiative to build more a more resilient Austin, so that our most vulnerable communities can recover more quickly and successfully from destabilizing and sometimes chronic shocks and stressors. Nothing has made this need clearer than the current COVID-19 crisis and the disparate impact that we see across our city. We are proposing comprehensive community resilience planning that builds on the climate mitigation work we’ve done so successfully, and expands our understanding of resilience to include the many chronic stressors that undermine the capacity of so many of our families to bounce back and thrive after experiencing destabilizing life events.
Here in Austin, the pandemic is a tale of two communities, with one side experiencing what some news organizations are calling a “cozy catastrophe” where losses and stressors are buffered by financial security and good health insurance.
The other side is enduring a much lonelier and scarier crisis where underemployment or loss of employment combined with a lack of health insurance and little or no savings weaken struggling families. Food and housing insecurity strain networks along with the burden of a system reliant on costly bandwidth to connect and keep children learning through school closures.
And for front line workers, going to work means potential exposure to the virus and compromising the well-being of your family, while carrying the unexpected financial burden of childcare during the school year. Risking your family’s health seems a poor bargain.
Our most vulnerable residents at risk – seniors, families experiencing housing and food insecurity, children and adults with chronic health issues, and our neighbors experiencing homelessness – are all living through both the catastrophic event of COVID-19 but are doubly harmed by the chronic stressors of poverty and social and racial disparities that erode resilience.
We are in the trenches of this crisis at this moment, but even as we fight the daily battles, we have our eyes on recovery, and looking to how we can shape our future in what could be a new reality. As we do that, we need to ensure that Austin’s future is focused where it should be – on building community resilience for the next, and the next, crisis, and relieving the daily stressors that challenge many residents.
Building stronger communities that can survive, adapt, and thrive throughout challenging times should be our focus through this recovery as we collaborate with our residents, businesses, and non-profit partners to shape a stronger and more resilient Austin.
This resolution is just the first step; we’ll have an opportunity to enhance or amend this proposal when the City Manager returns with options in June for how to implement a comprehensive community resilience plan. And in this uncertain financial time, we need to be flexible and innovative in our partnerships and funding opportunities. But always, we are committed to building stronger, resilient communities.
We look forward to the discussion.
Council Member Leslie Pool
Mayor Steve Adler
Council Member Alison Alter
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison
Council Member Kathie Tovo
On May 7, we are introducing an initiative to build more a more resilient Austin, so that our most vulnerable communities can recover more quickly and successfully from destabilizing and sometimes chronic shocks and stressors. Nothing has made this need clearer than the current COVID-19 crisis and the disparate impact that we see across our city. We are proposing comprehensive community resilience planning that builds on the climate mitigation work we’ve done so successfully, and expands our understanding of resilience to include the many chronic stressors that undermine the capacity of so many of our families to bounce back and thrive after experiencing destabilizing life events.
Here in Austin, the pandemic is a tale of two communities, with one side experiencing what some news organizations are calling a “cozy catastrophe” where losses and stressors are buffered by financial security and good health insurance.
The other side is enduring a much lonelier and scarier crisis where underemployment or loss of employment combined with a lack of health insurance and little or no savings weaken struggling families. Food and housing insecurity strain networks along with the burden of a system reliant on costly bandwidth to connect and keep children learning through school closures.
And for front line workers, going to work means potential exposure to the virus and compromising the well-being of your family, while carrying the unexpected financial burden of childcare during the school year. Risking your family’s health seems a poor bargain.
Our most vulnerable residents at risk – seniors, families experiencing housing and food insecurity, children and adults with chronic health issues, and our neighbors experiencing homelessness – are all living through both the catastrophic event of COVID-19 but are doubly harmed by the chronic stressors of poverty and social and racial disparities that erode resilience.
We are in the trenches of this crisis at this moment, but even as we fight the daily battles, we have our eyes on recovery, and looking to how we can shape our future in what could be a new reality. As we do that, we need to ensure that Austin’s future is focused where it should be – on building community resilience for the next, and the next, crisis, and relieving the daily stressors that challenge many residents.
Building stronger communities that can survive, adapt, and thrive throughout challenging times should be our focus through this recovery as we collaborate with our residents, businesses, and non-profit partners to shape a stronger and more resilient Austin.
This resolution is just the first step; we’ll have an opportunity to enhance or amend this proposal when the City Manager returns with options in June for how to implement a comprehensive community resilience plan. And in this uncertain financial time, we need to be flexible and innovative in our partnerships and funding opportunities. But always, we are committed to building stronger, resilient communities.
We look forward to the discussion.
Council Member Leslie Pool
Mayor Steve Adler
Council Member Alison Alter
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison
Council Member Kathie Tovo