On October 1, 2024, Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC) celebrates 25 years of providing services to the Austin community, along with achieving the milestone of connecting over 600 people to long-term housing since October 2015.

Established in 1999 as the first community court in Texas and the seventh in the United States, DACC has a mission to empower people to thrive by providing impartial justice and compassionate community-based services.

DACC utilizes alternative adjudication methods that offer nontraditional, person-centered solutions for resolving cases filed with the court.  DACC's approach connects individuals to services and opportunities to contribute to the community to resolve outstanding cases, while simultaneously removing future barriers to housing and employment by helping prevent these cases from becoming part of individuals' criminal records.

Through DACC’s Community Services Program, individuals are able to complete required public service hours through municipal purpose jobs including beautification projects and graffiti abatement throughout the city. In Fiscal Year 2024 alone, participants of this program have completed over 983 projects, servicing over 25 acres in the Austin community.

DACC is also a pillar of Austin’s Homelessness Response System, providing trauma-informed and housing-focused services to help improve an individual’s quality of life and help end their experience with homelessness. DACC’s homeless services are an integral part of the department’s community court model, serving as a deflection from criminal justice involvement by meeting people’s needs before situations escalate to involve law enforcement.

Homeless services include walk-in case management, connecting over 70 people per day with basic needs, resource navigation, medication storage and a mailing address, DACC’s Intensive Case Management program, connecting individuals to long-term case management and wraparound supports, and dedicating a case manager to the City’s Homeless Outreach Street Team.

“Through our court, Community Service program, and array of homeless services, everything we do is rooted in building trust with the people we serve,” said Robert Kingham, Court Administrator for DACC. “With this approach, we’re able to work collaboratively with our clients and partners to compassionately address homelessness, improving the lives of the people we serve and benefitting the community overall.”

Innovation is central in DACC's service model, evolving and creating new programs to meet community needs.  This includes the creation of the Clinical Diversion Program (CDP) in March 2023, which embeds case managers directly in the court room to enhance connection to services and improve case completion rates, as well as DACC's Mobile Court program, which addresses barriers to engaging in services by meeting people where they are already accessing services throughout the community with other trusted partners.

Since its inception, CDP has served over 359 individuals and resolved 519 outstanding cases through participation in case management activities.  Mobile Court has conducted 890 court case checks and cleared 89 warrants through community-based events.  Mobile Court began as a pilot in October 2023, and is funded for full implementation beginning in January 2025.

For more information about DACC, please view this video highlighting their services and visit www.austintexas.gov/communitycourt.