Fox News Flash top headlines for January 28
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The Austin City Council is purchasing at least one new hotel to house homeless people and using some $6.5 million slashed from the police budget to do it.
The city council voted in favor of the $6.7 million acquisition of Texas Bungalows Hotel & Suites in North Austin on Wednesday, but postponed a similar vote to purchase the Candlewood Suites in northwest Austin for $9.5 million until councilmembers have a chance to speak to business owners and community members about the project.
If both hotels are purchased, it would boost the total number of hotels designated to house homeless people to seven throughout the city. It would cost $3.8 million annually to run both hotels.
"We’ll be using funds diverted from our police budget to run the hotel and provide services like job aid, mental health care, & more," council member Gregorio Casar, who led the effort to make budget cuts to policing and reallocate dollars to housing services, said in a post on Twitter.
"None of this would be possible without your continued advocacy & support. We won the largest affordable housing election in Austin’s history, which helps us buy these hotels. We passed a transformative budget that reimagined justice & safety, which allows us to run the hotels," he added.
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The Austin Police Department was one of dozens across the country to face significant budget cuts after heavy protests demanded big cities "defund the police" and reinvest dollars into community operations and initiatives, citing distrust between minority communities and police.
The Austin City Council also agreed to pull $20 million from the police department’s budget by canceling new classes of incoming police officers and reducing overtime for officers.
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Almost $80 million more will be rerouted from civilian policing functions to other civilian priorities under a different umbrella of the city.
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