Exclusive: City audit counters whistleblower claims of living conditions at Northbridge

The Northbridge Shelter on I-35 near East St. Johns Avenue on Thursday August 31, 2023.
Lay Janner/American-Statesman

Austin American-Statesman
Ella McCarthyChase Rogers, Austin American-Statesman
October 20, 2023

An audit conducted after an Austin Council Member and Austin Public Health Department employee raised concerns about poor living conditions in the city-run Northbridge homeless shelter found “insufficient evidence” to substantiate the allegations, the American-Statesman has learned.

In late August, City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly emailed a list of concerns about the shelter to Interim City Manager Jesús Garza. Among the list were rumors of drug use, acts of violence and the presence of weapons on premises.

Kelly sent the email after Andrea Gipson, a program supervisor for Austin Public Health, reached out to the city council member. Kelly said she was "shocked and disheartened" to have learned about the conditions through Gipson, rather than official channels, she wrote in her email to Garza.

Gipson provided media outlets, including the Statesman, with photos and video she says she took inside the shelter, showing rooms littered with trash and containing what appear to be weapons and drug paraphernalia. One photo included what looks like a handgun — which the city now says was actually a pellet gun — resting on a windowsill.

The findings in the health department's audit, detailed in a three-page memo dated Oct. 18 and sent from Austin Public Health Director Adrienne Sturrup to the mayor and City Council, state that city employees took the photos of the pellet gun and drug paraphernalia during the intake process for people first entering the shelter and during regular room checks.

As the audit was underway, Austin Police Department officials concurrently conducted a safety assessment of Northbridge, which is located at 7400 North Interstate 35 in North Austin.

Many of the initial allegations were unsubstantiated based on the results of the audit, and the health department followed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines and best practices during its operations of the shelter, according to the memo.

However, Sturrup's memo includes a list of recommendations and changes to improve operations, including conditions, safety and record keeping.

Gipson, who said she had reviewed Sturrup's memo, disputed many of the findings, saying the memo had "so many holes in it."

“It does not feel like this was an investigation," Gipson, who said she has been on paid administrative leave since July 31, told the Statesman Thursday.

Kelly did not respond to requests for an interview Thursday afternoon.

The health department did not provide responses to Statesman inquiries about the findings of its audit or the memo Thursday. APD did not provide responses to questions about its safety assessment.

Violence and assaults at the shelter

The APD safety assessment, Sturrup says in the memo, found that the shelter had not received “any calls that indicated a pattern of violent crime" — one of the concerns in Kelly's email to Garza.

Sturrup wrote, “there were no incidents of physical abuse reported to management.”

“Any incident involving a physical altercation can result in the immediate removal of involved clients," Sturrup wrote. "There have been occurrences of verbal altercations, and all were handled on a case-by-case basis."

However, since Northbridge began operating as an emergency shelter in August 2021, at least three emergency calls were made to Austin police in regard to reported assaults, according to APD dispatch records obtained by the Statesman through a Texas Public Information Act request. Whether an arrest took place is not disclosed in the dispatch records.

Gipson disputed the APD safety assessment conducted in conjunction with the audit that there were no calls indicating there had been violent crime at the shelter.

On June 28, Gipson said she called the police after a client got "belligerent and aggressive and hostile" with her. The APD dispatch records reviewed by the Statesman show officers were called to Northbridge the same day for a criminal trespass.

The APD assessment recommended a number of changes to improve safety and security including trimming trees to improve sightlines, increasing the frequency of room checks and the installation of additional signage.

The Northbridge Shelter on I-35 near East St. Johns Avenue on Thursday August 31, 2023.
Lay Janner/American-Statesman

Deaths at the shelter

In her email to Garza, Kelly said she had heard there had been "several deaths within the facility, reportedly linked to drug overdoses."

Sturrup wrote that there was one overdose death in October 2022. EMS records reviewed by the Statesman show that the death was on Oct. 7.

Since January 2022, EMS officials responded to four overdoses that took place at the shelter, including the fatal overdose on Oct. 7, according to EMS dispatch records and incident reports obtained by the Statesman.

More recently, EMS officials were dispatched to Northbridge on Aug. 5 when an individual was found deceased, but the records reviewed by the Statesman do not attribute the death to an overdose, instead describing cardiac arrest.

Poor living conditions

Sturrup's memo addresses Gipson's photos and videos — some of which showed one room with an overturned bed, multiple cigarettes scattered across a desk and open food containers and other debris on the floor.

That room belonged to a client who had been given "multiple warnings" about the state of the room, according to Sturrup. Clients with "unacceptable rooms" are given warnings and counseling with the aim of helping them "learn best practices for living situations after they leave the shelter."

That client is no longer at the shelter, Sturrup wrote. The memo does not state when or why they are no longer living at Northbridge.

Gipson said Thursday that room was not an isolated case and that multiple rooms were in similarly poor condition.