02:21 PM CST on Friday, December 10, 2004

Associated Press

Austin unveiled its 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in Austin on Friday at a press conference at St. David's Episcopal Church.

The main goals of the plan are to keep the chronic homeless off the streets by never letting them get there in the first place.

The plan calls for building an infrastructure to make more resources available to businesses to pay their employees a living wage.

Also, the plan aims to provide incentives for programs such as welfare and mental health to help with chronic problems.

It's estimated that there are approximately 600 chronically homeless in Austin.

"But these perhaps 600 people, or 10 to 15 percent of the city's homeless population, use approximately 50 percent of our combined public and private resources," said Mayor Will Wynn. "So there is an economic agruement here about trying to end chronic homelessness."

Housing an urban development defines chronically homeless as those with disabling conditions who have been homeless for at least one year or have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.