Kasey Diffie unloads groceries into the food pantry at Integral Care’s newest supportive housing apartments, Seabrook II.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Integral Care, Travis County’s mental health authority, has opened its fourth supportive housing location. The first 14 of 60 residents moved in last week to Seabrook II in East Austin.
The complex near Manor Road and E.M. Franklin Road provides single-resident housing units for people who have experienced homelessness. Residents are selected from the list kept by Austin’s Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, which counted 3,865 people as unsheltered in Travis County in its 2025 Point in Time count.
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Each of the apartments at Integral Care’s Seabrook II has a functional bathroom with a walk-in shower.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Integral Care’s newest supportive housing apartments, Seabrook II, have opened near Manor Road and E.M. Franklin Avenue in East Austin.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Each of the apartments at Integral Care’s Seabrook II comes with an initisl supply of toiletries. The food pantry also carries toiletries.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
The community room at Integral Care’s newest supportive housing apartments, Seabrook II, also offers a kitchen for hosting events.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Integral Care’s Seabrook II has a large community room for activities and connection.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Like at any apartment, residents sign a 12-month lease with the option to renew, but unlike a typical complex, these apartments were built with trauma-informed design and have resources that are part of the living experience.
This $21 million project was paid for by designated housing funds from the city of Austin, Travis County and the federal government, some of which came from COVID-19 pandemic funding programs.
“We really lucked into this,” said Marlene Buchanan, Integral Care’s director of practice management, of the funding. “We’ve become a housing provider out of necessity because we couldn’t find housing somewhere else.”
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Marlene Buchanan, Integral Care’s director of practice management, looks at the the kitchen area of one of the apartments in Seabrook II.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
This is part of Integral Care’s housing-first model. “If we can solve the housing, everything else will follow,” Buchanan said.
Integral Care now has 225 permanent supportive housing units. It built the Terrace at Oak Springs for $19 million and renovated two existing apartment buildings: The Bungalows, a $4 million remodel with city of Austin funding, and The Nellie, a $14 million remodel with federal funding.
Integral Care spends about $4 million a year to provide support services at these four properties. It does not have any new funding available for additional properties.
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Integral Care’s newest supportive housing apartments, Seabrook II, have opened near Manor Road and E.M. Franklin Avenue in East Austin. A mosaic mural on the side of the building tells the story of the J.J. Seabrook neighborhood.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
A home and help
Seabrook II, like Integral Care’s other apartment locations, has multiple staff members on-site to provide support services. Services include art therapy, meetings for people in recovery, cooking classes and a food pantry that is stocked by the Central Texas Food Bank and supplemented by grant-funded fresh H-E-B products like milk, eggs and meat.
“The key to healing is connection,” said Kali Holyfield, deputy director of specialty programs for Integral Care.
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Support staff include a peer support specialist, a 24-hour front desk receptionist and a 24-hour security guard, as well as specialists who can help residents sign up for benefits like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP food benefits and Central Health’s Medical Access Program, as well as navigate other living challenges. Once a week, a care team from Central Health also provides on-site medical care. The first floor also has computers for residents to use, a large community room and free washers and dryers.
Residents are not required to use the resources. Buchanan said sometimes residents “will say no to resources 37 times and the 38th time they say OK.”
Marlene Buchanan, Integral Care’s director of practice management, shows the bedroom and living room area in one of the apartments in Seabrook II. Each apartment comes with all the furniture and furnishings.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Integral Care uses housing vouchers for those who qualify to pay residents’ rent. For residents who have no income, rent is free. If they have some income, such as Social Security benefits, residents will pay no more than 30% of their income for rent.
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At Integral Care’s three other supportive housing sites, most residents stay two to five years, but some will stay longer based on their health and needs.
Like at a typical apartment, residents can bring pets, but Integral Care makes sure there is a plan in place to take care of the pet if a resident is hospitalized or dies.
Integral Care created an outdoor living space between the apartment building and the garage at the new Seabrook II supportive housing apartments.
Nicole Villalpando/American-Statesman
Integral Care’s newest supportive housing apartments, Seabrook II, have open air vestibules with a screened-in space on each floor. Residents at Integral Care’s other sites wanted more connection to the outside.
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