Latest / Austin Signal / Probe finds pregnant migrant girls lack adequate care in Texas shelter

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Probe finds pregnant migrant girls lack adequate care in Texas shelter · Austin Signal

• 0:08
  Pregnant migrant girls are being
• 0:09
  sent to a South Texas shelter where
• 0:11
  both the region and the facility
• 0:13
  lack the necessary care.
• 0:15
  The decision from the Trump
• 0:16
  administration was made against
• 0:18
  objections from officials inside
• 0:20
  the administration.
• 0:21
  That story is a collaborative effort
• 0:23
  between the Texas newsroom and the
• 0:24
  California newsroom, and we're gonna
• 0:26
  have more from their reporting
• 0:27
  coming up on today's show.
• 0:29
  The Austin Signal is a production
• 0:31
  of KUT News, hosted by
• 0:33
  Jerry Quijano.
• 0:34
  Plus, a new housing project in East
• 0:36
  Austin is combining affordable rent
• 0:38
  with support from musicians as
• 0:40
  they try to do their part to allow
• 0:41
  artists to afford to live in the
• 0:43
  city, what they've got going on, and
• 0:45
  how this could lay out a path for
• 0:46
  future projects.
• 0:47
  And new class times for students and
• 0:49
  staff in the Georgetown School
• 0:50
  District. The bell is about to
• 0:52
  ring. Do not be late, because
• 0:54
  Austin Signal is coming up next.
• 1:06
  Howdy out there.
• 1:07
  Thank you for tuning in.
• 1:08
  This is Austin Signal,
• 1:10
  and we are coming to you from
• 1:12
  listener-powered public radio,
• 1:14
  KUT News.
• 1:16
  I'm your host, Jerry Keconnell.
• 1:17
  It is Wednesday, February 11th.
• 1:19
  We're glad to be part of your
• 1:21
  day.
• 1:23
  Our top story, the Trump
• 1:24
  administration is sending pregnant
• 1:26
  migrant girls to a shelter in
• 1:28
  deep south Texas.
• 1:29
  The shelter is flagged as
• 1:31
  medically inadequate.
• 1:33
  And advocates for the children
• 1:34
  inside are worried that they're
• 1:35
  being concentrated here in Texas
• 1:37
  because of the state's abortion ban.
• 1:39
  This story is a collaboration
• 1:41
  between the Texas newsroom and the
• 1:43
  California newsroom.
• 1:44
  Mo's Bouchelle has been covering
• 1:45
  immigration for the Texas Newsroom.
• 1:48
  He reported on this story and he's
• 1:49
  with us today on Austin Signal.
• 1:51
  Welcome, Mo's.
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  Always a pleasure, Jerry.
• 1:53
  So this is a collaborative story
• 1:54
  between the Texas New Room and the
• 1:56
  California news room.
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  Tell us a little bit about how this
• 1:59
  story came together.
• 2:00
  How did you hear about this?
• 2:02
  Yeah, so I was working with a
• 2:04
  reporter for the California
• 2:04
  Newsroom, a guy named Mark
• 2:06
  Bettencourt, who's actually based
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  in D.C., who started
• 2:10
  hearing from people within
• 2:12
  the Trump administration,
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  within the Office of Refugee
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  Resettlement, that there was
• 2:17
  concern there over
• 2:19
  this new policy of concentrating
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  pregnant unaccompanied minors
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  at one particular
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  shelter in South Texas.
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  Now, obviously, we are in Texas here
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  in Austin.
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  Uh... The uh... Did the policy shift
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  is coming out of dc and
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  so it seemed to make sense to kind
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  of work together to try to try to
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  get to the bottom was happening here
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  and you actually made a visit down
• 2:40
  to south texas yeah i went i went
• 2:41
  down to the real grand valley uh...
• 2:43
  Uh... Talk to a bunch of folks down
• 2:45
  there and visited uh...
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  San benito texAS where this
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  particular shelters located
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  This shelter is at the heart of your
• 2:51
  story. Can you tell us about the
• 2:52
  policy that's sending pregnant
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  minors to this shelter?
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  Absolutely so uh...
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  What started last summer was a
• 2:58
  directive went out in the office of
• 3:00
  refugee resettlement is the agency
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  responsible for the care of
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  uh... Uh... Kids uh...
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  In you know immigrant kids in the in
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  its in its custody uh...
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  The policy went out to concentrate
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  all pregnant minors
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  in this one particular place
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  uh... It's uh...
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  Shelter run by uh...
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  For-profit company called urban
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  strategies in San Benito, Texas.
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  And this is a policy that
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  breaks with long-standing practice
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  at the Office of Refugee
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  Resettlement. What was that old
• 3:28
  policy? So traditionally,
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  the idea has been if you have a
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  pregnant girl in US custody,
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  she will be sent to whatever place
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  might best accommodate
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  her, a part of the country
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  and a center that has
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  the capacity to deal with
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  potentially high-risk pregnancies,
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  which if you are a minor and
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  you're pregnant, then you are by
• 3:49
  definition high risk.
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  In this case, the directive
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  went out to say, no, actually we
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  want all of the detainees
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  who fit this description, all
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  pregnant girls sent to this one
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  particular place.
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  That was a break from long standing
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  practice.
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  And why San Benito, I mean it's
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  this tiny town in the border,
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  in the valley of Texas,
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  why San benito of all places?
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  So a lot of the people that
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  we've heard from within ORR
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  and people outside, I should
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  say as well, state with
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  great confidence that this has to do
• 4:19
  with access to abortion.
• 4:21
  In the first Trump term, there was
• 4:23
  an ongoing effort to deprive
• 4:25
  detained girls access to abortions
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  while they were in U.S.
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  Custody.
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  And in this case, they believe
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  that by sending these girls
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  to Texas, which has some of the
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  strictest abortion restrictions
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  in the country of almost complete
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  ban, you will eventually
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  kind of deprive
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  them of access to abortion by
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  having them here.
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  Now, this will require other changes
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  in rules at the federal level, but
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  they see this as a step in that
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  direction.
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  Did these immigrant children who are
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  in custody of federal officials, did
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  they have any kind of protections
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  prior to this policy
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  change?
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  Yeah, I mentioned in the first Trump
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  term, there was an effort to stop
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  them from getting abortions
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  and that was litigated
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  in 2017.
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  There was a lawsuit that led to
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  it's kind of a long story, but
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  essentially led to a what
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  you might call an agreement that
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  then was translated into policy
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  under the Biden administration.
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  The policy was no,
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  if there is a minor in custody
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  that wants wants an
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  abortion, she she has the
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  right to that access no matter where
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  she's kept in the country.
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  Currently, it appears the Trump
• 5:32
  administration is changing those
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  rules. Once those rules are changed,
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  and you are detained
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  in Texas, many
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  people fear that will restrict
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  or end their access
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  to abortion.
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  The article is over at KUT.org.
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  It has a couple of photos of the
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  shelter.
• 5:50
  One thing I wanted to ask Moe is
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  that as you've been covering
• 5:53
  immigration for the Texas newsroom
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  for the last few months, you have
• 5:56
  been working or trying to get
• 5:57
  information from federal officials
• 5:59
  more often. I feel like that is
• 6:00
  something that's happening across
• 6:02
  our newsroom.
• 6:03
  How difficult was it to build
• 6:04
  sources to be able to report out a
• 6:06
  story like this?
• 6:07
  Uh... We had a lot of trouble
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  talking to people you know multiple
• 6:10
  emails and gotten went on answered
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  uh... Eventually we did get some
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  uh... Kind of boilerplate uh...
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  Answers uh... In email from from
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  federal agencies.
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  I went down in person to
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  this shelter just to kind
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  of knock on the door after getting
• 6:26
  no reply to our emails for a
• 6:28
  long time.
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  And that also, maybe not
• 6:30
  surprisingly, didn't yield great
• 6:32
  results.
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  But we do have all the replies we
• 6:36
  got in our story online,
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  what we did receive from them.
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  We quote them in their responses and
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  we quote our named sources
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  within the government who often
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  who in many cases might
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  contradict what the official
• 6:50
  responses might be is
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  there anything else that I haven't
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  asked you about that you I mean I
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  know it's hard to just jump into a
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  really well yeah I mean the only
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  Oh, yeah, I mean, the only the only so
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  so another part of this is just the
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  fact that there's a lot of concern
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  we have heard within our and then
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  also experts we talked to outside
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  of the agency, that this
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  is not in the best interest of
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  these kids in many cases,
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  you know, if you had your choice of
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  anywhere in the country to send
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  pregnant minors, who
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  are again, medically vulnerable by
• 7:19
  definition, why choose
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  a part of the country that Struggles
• 7:23
  with some- Some healthcare access
• 7:25
  issues already right you know you
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  could send them to a city in texas
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  that has better access to
• 7:30
  specialized care or you can send
• 7:31
  them. To any other part of the
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  country that has a better access two
• 7:35
  specialized care so you
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  know the the deep concern on
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  the part of many people is that
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  whatever is happening is on its
• 7:42
  face.
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  Bad for these kids that is not in
• 7:45
  their best interest when it comes to
• 7:46
  health and safety.
• 7:48
  We've been speaking with Moe's
• 7:49
  Bouchelle. He has been covering
• 7:50
  immigration for the Texas newsroom.
• 7:52
  His latest story was co-reported
• 7:54
  with Mark Betancourt of the
• 7:55
  California newsroom, you can read
• 7:56
  their story at kut.org and
• 7:58
  we're gonna have a link in our show
• 8:00
  notes for today.
• 8:01
  Moe, thanks for talking with us.
• 8:02
  Thank you, Jerry.
• 8:10
  As school districts across the state
• 8:12
  continue working to find creative
• 8:14
  ways to save some money, one
• 8:16
  district north of Austin is
• 8:17
  considering doing so by rearranging
• 8:19
  its school day.
• 8:21
  KUT's Kaylee Hunt reports a
• 8:23
  new bell schedule for Georgetown ISD
• 8:25
  is the district's attempt at cutting
• 8:27
  down on transportation costs.
• 8:30
  Georgetown ISD's newly adopted
• 8:32
  Bell schedule includes earlier
• 8:34
  start times for the district's
• 8:36
  elementary and high schools.
• 8:38
  Middle schools will also start
• 8:39
  later.
• 8:40
  The district superintendent, Devin
• 8:42
  Patteville, says the idea is
• 8:44
  to make enough of a gap between
• 8:46
  start times so the same bus can
• 8:48
  serve all three school levels.
• 8:50
  So by spreading out with
• 8:52
  about 45 to 50 minutes between
• 8:54
  each level of schooling, we're able
• 8:56
  to reduce bus routes, which saves
• 8:58
  us close to a million dollars.
• 9:00
  Right now, the district runs on a
• 9:02
  schedule that has 60 minutes between
• 9:04
  elementary and high school start
• 9:06
  times.
• 9:07
  High school and middle school start
• 9:08
  time are only 20 minutes apart.
• 9:11
  That means most bus routes are only
• 9:12
  able to service two schools,
• 9:14
  either an elementary and a high
• 9:16
  school, or an elementary and a
• 9:18
  middle school.
• 9:19
  And that's expensive, says Clint
• 9:20
  Pruitt, Georgetown ISD's Executive
• 9:22
  Director of Support Services.
• 9:24
  He recently spoke at
• 9:26
  a meeting of the district's board of
• 9:27
  trustees.
• 9:28
  Each route equates to
• 9:30
  between $70,000 to $80,000,
• 9:33
  so you can see the potential savings
• 9:35
  are considerable if we're
• 9:37
  able to implement a balanced
• 9:39
  three-tier system.
• 9:40
  Superintendent Padaville says the
• 9:42
  new bell schedule and the resulting
• 9:44
  savings means the district will
• 9:46
  be in a better position to offer
• 9:47
  teacher and staff raises next year.
• 9:50
  So we're carrying a balanced budget
• 9:51
  into 2026, 27,
• 9:54
  but that doesn't allow us to
• 9:55
  increase teacher pay.
• 9:56
  In order to increase teachers pay,
• 9:59
  I have to lead the district in
• 10:01
  essentially eliminating more
• 10:03
  expenses or
• 10:05
  going with the deficit budget.
• 10:07
  There's no more new revenue.
• 10:09
  Pataville also recently announced
• 10:11
  a delay in opening two new
• 10:12
  schools until 2027.
• 10:15
  Elementary school number 12 and
• 10:17
  middle school number 5 were supposed
• 10:19
  to open this August.
• 10:21
  But Patavilles says the district is
• 10:22
  seeing slower than anticipated
• 10:24
  enrollment growth.
• 10:25
  Right now, the cost of opening the
• 10:27
  schools outweighs the benefits.
• 10:29
  When we look at student
• 10:31
  enrollment, it's pretty
• 10:33
  much tapering off in central Texas
• 10:35
  because of the state of economy and
• 10:38
  homeowner interest rates.
• 10:40
  Everything's staying real stable.
• 10:42
  David de Matthews is a professor
• 10:44
  in the Department of Educational
• 10:46
  Leadership and Policy at UT
• 10:48
  Austin.
• 10:49
  In his role, he helps train district
• 10:51
  administrators like Pataville.
• 10:53
  He says
• 10:54
  In a lot of districts across the
• 10:55
  state, people are looking everywhere
• 10:58
  to tighten their belts
• 11:00
  because there's just not enough
• 11:01
  money.
• 11:03
  DiMathias says saving a million
• 11:05
  dollars might not seem like a big
• 11:06
  deal when you consider the overall
• 11:08
  budget of a school district like
• 11:10
  Georgetown ISD.
• 11:11
  Last year, its budget was just over
• 11:13
  $260 million.
• 11:15
  But he says every bit counts.
• 11:18
  $1 million is equal to 10
• 11:20
  or more teachers' salaries.
• 11:22
  I'm Kaylee Hunt in Georgetown.
• 11:25
  And this is Austin
• 11:28
  Signal. We are listener-powered
• 11:29
  public radio.
• 11:31
  We're gonna take a break, but after
• 11:32
  the break, we're gonna talk a little
• 11:34
  Texas music history, a little Austin
• 11:36
  music history.
• 11:37
  And then we're going to talk about
• 11:38
  an affordable housing, a project
• 11:40
  that is being set up to keep
• 11:42
  those musicians here in Austin,
• 11:44
  hopefully for the foreseeable
• 11:46
  future.
• 11:47
  We've got more about those stories
• 11:49
  coming up after this break.
• 11:50
  This is Austin signal.
• 11:58
  This is Austin Signal,
• 12:00
  welcome back.
• 12:01
  Well, many decades and many moons
• 12:03
  ago, a set of historic
• 12:05
  recordings were created right here
• 12:07
  in Austin, caught on tape by
• 12:09
  a 21-year-old kid.
• 12:11
  Here's Jason Mellard from the Center
• 12:13
  for Texas Music History at Texas
• 12:15
  State University to tell us
• 12:17
  a little bit about it.
• 12:19
  In our listening to the five soul
• 12:21
  souls of Houston, Texas, we are
• 12:22
  singing in Austin, Texas on
• 12:25
  February the 12th for the
• 12:26
  Library of Congress in
• 12:28
  Washington.
• 12:33
  This week in Texas music history, a
• 12:35
  Houston gospel group stirs things up
• 12:37
  in Depression-era Austin.
• 12:39
  On February 12th, 1936,
• 12:41
  the Soul Stirrers made their first
• 12:42
  recordings.
• 12:44
  The influential gospel group didn't
• 12:45
  do so with a record company.
• 12:46
  Rather, it was 21-year-old
• 12:48
  folklorist Alan Lomax, who first
• 12:50
  captured their music for the Library
• 12:51
  of Congress.
• 12:52
  The Houston-based group was in
• 12:54
  Austin for the weekend, and Lomx
• 12:55
  took time off his studies at the
• 12:57
  University of Texas to set up the
• 12:58
  session. Lomax participated in
• 13:00
  thousands of such sessions in his
• 13:02
  career. And he described the four
• 13:03
  songs of these initial soul stirrers
• 13:06
  recordings as the most incredible
• 13:08
  polyrhythmic music you've ever
• 13:09
  heard.
• 13:17
  Though Lomax was ostensibly
• 13:18
  recording them as an example of folk
• 13:20
  culture for posterity, he surely
• 13:22
  recognized their popular potential.
• 13:28
  When singer R.H.
• 13:29
  Harris of Trinity, Texas joined the
• 13:31
  group in 1937, their style
• 13:33
  gelled, and their move to Chicago
• 13:35
  positioned the soul stirrers to
• 13:36
  influence the next generation of
• 13:38
  gospel performance and even duop.
• 13:40
  The commercial success grew in the
• 13:41
  1940s, but it would be another
• 13:43
  addition to the group that took them
• 13:44
  to the next level.
• 13:50
  You gave me water, you gave me w-
• 13:53
  When singer Harris left the
• 13:54
  Soul-Stirrers in 1950, a 20-year-old
• 13:56
  Sam Cooke took his place.
• 13:58
  Their biggest hit to date came the
• 13:59
  following year, Jesus Gave Me Water,
• 14:01
  and Sam Cook's smooth, lilting style
• 14:03
  and harmony with the Soul Stirrers
• 14:05
  set the standard for 50s gospel.
• 14:07
  So much so that the larger
• 14:09
  commercial gains and creative
• 14:10
  freedom of secular music beckoned
• 14:11
  CooKE. In a move controversial with
• 14:13
  some of their gospel fans, CooKe
• 14:15
  left the soul stirrers in 1957
• 14:17
  and crossed over into pop and R&B.
• 14:19
  The genius of you send me,
• 14:21
  bring it on home to me.
• 14:22
  And of course, a change is gonna
• 14:23
  come on the horizon.
• 14:25
  And all of it traces back to an
• 14:26
  Austin weekend where a Houston
• 14:28
  gospel group crossed paths with a UT
• 14:30
  student and the Library of Congress.
• 14:36
  You can hear music from the Lone
• 14:37
  Star State 24-7 on the
• 14:39
  Texas Music Experience at tmx.fm.
• 14:45
  He gave that woman
• 14:47
  water, gave a livin'
• 14:49
  a lovin' lastin' water, and
• 14:51
  was not in bread.
• 14:53
  Well, on that woman he had
• 14:55
  pity, she ran back
• 14:57
  to the...
• 14:58
  Rising rents are not just an issue
• 14:59
  for one set of industry workers here
• 15:02
  in the City of Austin, but for the
• 15:04
  live music capital of the world,
• 15:06
  getting musicians housed in Austin
• 15:07
  remains an ongoing issue.
• 15:09
  However, a small East Austin
• 15:11
  nonprofit has stepped in to
• 15:13
  help out.
• 15:14
  For more about that, we are talking
• 15:15
  with Chad Switecki.
• 15:16
  He wrote the story for KUT's
• 15:18
  Artbeat, and he's joining us now on
• 15:20
  Austin Signal. Chad, thanks for
• 15:21
  being with us.
• 15:22
  Thank you.
• 15:22
  So tell us a little bit more about
• 15:24
  this non-
• 15:25
  So Blacklands CDC is
• 15:27
  an organization that's been active
• 15:29
  in the Blacklands area of East
• 15:31
  Austin for decades now.
• 15:32
  And they're all about housing
• 15:34
  preservation and creating affordable
• 15:36
  housing for that community, that
• 15:37
  area, which we all know is being
• 15:40
  gentrified practically out of
• 15:41
  existence. So they're doing as much
• 15:42
  as they can to create new
• 15:44
  housing opportunities for folks.
• 15:46
  And what we're talking about here is
• 15:48
  they've got a tiny project
• 15:51
  that's gonna be called Arts Village
• 15:52
  that is going to
• 15:54
  eventually provide 10 Small
• 15:56
  homes, not apartments, but
• 15:58
  standalone small homes of
• 16:00
  about 500 square feet
• 16:02
  or less, specifically for musicians
• 16:04
  and priced at an affordable rate
• 16:06
  because as we all know,
• 16:08
  there's not a lot of money in music
• 16:10
  and living in this city
• 16:12
  becomes more expensive by the
• 16:13
  millisecond and so they are
• 16:15
  trying to step in and just see what
• 16:17
  can we create here that would maybe
• 16:19
  provide a tiny solution
• 16:20
  for some of these folks.
• 16:22
  You talked with one musician who's
• 16:23
  been a fixture around town, Thor
• 16:25
  Harris, and he talked about the cost
• 16:26
  of living here obviously, but the
• 16:28
  cost losing what makes Austin
• 16:30
  Austin, right?
• 16:31
  The musicians, the people who have
• 16:32
  been able to afford to live here and
• 16:34
  work here. What else did he have to
• 16:35
  say about this project?
• 16:36
  Well, you touched on a great point,
• 16:38
  because culture grows slowly and
• 16:40
  disappears quickly, right?
• 16:41
  Under bad circumstances.
• 16:44
  And so his point is, you
• 16:46
  know, no shade thrown at San
• 16:47
  Francisco or New York, but it is
• 16:49
  tough to exist there in those cities
• 16:52
  as an artist, as a musician.
• 16:54
  And for decades, both those cities
• 16:55
  were known as
• 16:57
  meccas for creativity and
• 16:59
  music.
• 17:00
  And Austin, much the same way.
• 17:02
  And we're, you now, in the process
• 17:03
  of losing that. I don't think we're
• 17:05
  at risk. We are in the process.
• 17:06
  Of losing that.
• 17:07
  His message or statement
• 17:09
  that he made to me was,
• 17:11
  we don't want to become the next
• 17:13
  Manhattan or the next San Francisco.
• 17:15
  And so there's the
• 17:17
  possibility that you can have a
• 17:19
  great little curative community
• 17:21
  that can be started by all these
• 17:23
  folks living in close proximity.
• 17:25
  As I understand it,
• 17:27
  these homes are going to be kind of
• 17:28
  oriented toward a common area so
• 17:30
  you're going to have
• 17:32
  you know, like jam sessions of sorts
• 17:34
  possibly kind of out in the open.
• 17:36
  That's a really great, cool
• 17:38
  idea. The Blackland CDC is
• 17:40
  actually gonna be creating a
• 17:42
  tiny stage behind
• 17:44
  their own building.
• 17:45
  That's gonna be part of this
• 17:46
  eventually.
• 17:47
  That's separate effort, but
• 17:49
  related.
• 17:50
  And so, you know there's just on
• 17:52
  top of the good vibe is just from
• 17:54
  housing. You could also have just
• 17:56
  a really cool interaction
• 17:59
  of creatives and people who, you
• 18:01
  now. Thankfully, they don't have to
• 18:02
  worry about losing their
• 18:04
  homes and having
• 18:06
  to scrape together every nickel
• 18:08
  possible. They can be a little more
• 18:10
  freewheeling, I guess you might say,
• 18:13
  and embrace their
• 18:15
  creativity rather than having to
• 18:17
  function like a
• 18:19
  business person, like a creative
• 18:20
  entrepreneur, which has its
• 18:22
  benefits, but also some of these
• 18:23
  people aren't wired that way, and we
• 18:24
  should embrace that and allow
• 18:26
  for them to live good
• 18:28
  and decent lives.
• 18:29
  You mentioned that this is
• 18:30
  a tiny project what is happening
• 18:32
  here at 10 homes is the
• 18:34
  stated goal but this isn't meant to
• 18:36
  be kind of a cure-all right it's
• 18:38
  supposed to maybe lay out a plan for
• 18:40
  a way that to
• 18:41
  possibly move forward.
• 18:42
  So one of the individuals I spoke
• 18:43
  with in my story is
• 18:45
  higher up at the nonprofit housing
• 18:47
  opportunities for musicians and
• 18:49
  entertainers and they said
• 18:51
  that this is a good
• 18:53
  potential pilot program
• 18:55
  that you know just again it
• 18:57
  is happening on its own but
• 18:59
  it kind of happened very quickly and
• 19:01
  is still happening.
• 19:03
  They're still in the fundraising
• 19:04
  phase but it's something that I
• 19:06
  think everyone kind of sees
• 19:08
  a lot of potential in and you know
• 19:10
  not that it's going to be modeled
• 19:11
  exactly but
• 19:13
  what do they say uh
• 19:15
  success has many fathers and and
• 19:17
  failures and orphan and if this
• 19:19
  thing is successful then we could
• 19:21
  hopefully be seeing more of
• 19:22
  them sprouting up in other parts of
• 19:24
  the City.
• 19:25
  Yeah, you mentioned a little bit
• 19:26
  about, we're gonna have a link to
• 19:28
  your story in our show notes for
• 19:30
  today and at kut.org
• 19:32
  slash signal. In the story, you can
• 19:33
  see one of the homes already that
• 19:35
  has been built, but you
• 19:37
  mentioned there that they are still
• 19:38
  at the fundraising process.
• 19:40
  What stage is this?
• 19:41
  Process in.
• 19:42
  They've secured about a $200,000
• 19:44
  grant from the St. David's
• 19:46
  Foundation that I think is more just
• 19:47
  geared toward architecture,
• 19:49
  planning, design, and that sort of
• 19:51
  thing. And then the estimated cost
• 19:53
  is going to be about $2 million,
• 19:55
  which for ten homes in Austin,
• 19:57
  frankly, that's quite modest.
• 19:59
  And when I was talking to Thor, he
• 20:01
  was very much of the mind that
• 20:03
  we want to get different builders in
• 20:04
  there or different designers.
• 20:06
  Maybe you can get the folks from
• 20:07
  Icon Homes to 3D Printo Home, but he
• 20:09
  wants them all be.
• 20:10
  Kind of different, kind of a little
• 20:11
  funky and have their own character,
• 20:13
  just again, so it doesn't feel
• 20:15
  prefabbed or anything like that.
• 20:17
  And so currently in the fundraising
• 20:19
  stage to get the
• 20:21
  two million dollars that it's
• 20:23
  estimated this thing could cost.
• 20:25
  So it's a thing that when
• 20:27
  you hear everyone
• 20:29
  in Austin liking to
• 20:31
  beat their chest about us being
• 20:33
  live music capital and as much
• 20:35
  money as we've got flying around in
• 20:37
  the city all the time on the tech
• 20:38
  side. You would certainly hope that
• 20:40
  two million dollars wouldn't be that
• 20:42
  difficult to scrape together.
• 20:45
  We talked to somebody earlier on
• 20:46
  Austin Signal this week about an
• 20:48
  affordable housing complex in Travis
• 20:50
  Heights in the Travis Heights
• 20:51
  neighborhood. And we talked about
• 20:52
  how sometimes the pushback
• 20:55
  to those kinds of projects is the
• 20:56
  neighborhood that it's going to be
• 20:58
  placed in.
• 20:59
  For this kinds of project, I wonder,
• 21:01
  is there any community interest for
• 21:02
  support?
• 21:03
  These sorts of ventures?
• 21:04
  You know, given that it's being led
• 21:06
  by Blackland CDC and
• 21:08
  they have such a good
• 21:10
  track record in that community,
• 21:12
  and again, you know, talk about
• 21:13
  Thor, he's been a musician and a
• 21:15
  member of that board for 40 years.
• 21:17
  So I think there's enough equity and
• 21:19
  enough trust built, I
• 21:21
  mean, and, again, they're going to
• 21:23
  orient these homes so that you're
• 21:24
  not going to have people getting
• 21:26
  blasted out by music in
• 21:28
  the surrounding neighborhood.
• 21:29
  So I think I think they're going to
• 21:30
  be very Intentional
• 21:32
  and thoughtful around this kind of
• 21:34
  thing. So, I mean, you never know
• 21:35
  until the rubber actually hits the
• 21:37
  road But it seems like you got the
• 21:38
  right people leading the charge
• 21:40
  on this to
• 21:42
  Get the buy-in and get the trust and
• 21:44
  get Acceptance of doing
• 21:46
  something a little bit different,
• 21:47
  but that has some really good
• 21:49
  intentions behind it
• 21:50
  All right, we have been speaking
• 21:51
  with Chad Switecki.
• 21:52
  We're gonna have a link to his story
• 21:53
  at kut.org slash
• 21:55
  signal. And in today's podcast
• 21:57
  show notes, Chad, thanks for
• 21:58
  chatting with us.
• 22:00
  My pleasure, thanks, Jerry.
• 22:01
  And before we get out of here today,
• 22:03
  you may wanna take advantage of this
• 22:05
  early spring-like weather and spend
• 22:06
  some time out at Barton Springs
• 22:08
  Pool, because it's about to close
• 22:10
  for about three weeks.
• 22:12
  Austin Parks and Recreation says the
• 22:13
  closure will start the week of
• 22:14
  February 23rd, that's the week
• 22:16
  after next, and continue until
• 22:18
  March 13th.
• 22:19
  The reason for the closure is
• 22:20
  removal of old creek flow bypass
• 22:22
  infrastructure that is at risk of
• 22:25
  collapse and that would threaten the
• 22:26
  habitat of the endangered Barton
• 22:29
  Springs salamander and that
• 22:30
  we don't want and that is
• 22:32
  it for us here today on
• 22:35
  Austin Signal.
• 22:35
  We have more from today's show at
• 22:37
  kut.org slash signal and
• 22:40
  in today's podcast show notes.
• 22:42
  Thank you to Rayna Sevilla
• 22:43
  and Kristen Cabrera for making
• 22:45
  today's show happen.
• 22:46
  And thank you to you for spending
• 22:48
  part of your day here with us.
• 22:50
  We will be back tomorrow.
• 22:51
  Talk to you then.