SAFE News

Austin's SAFE Alliance gets $1M to house domestic violence survivors

The Sasha will support nearly 250 adults and children.

Photo courtesy of KVUE

One million dollars in federal funding is coming to Austin to help domestic violence survivors find a safe place to live.

Congressman Greg Casar presented Travis County and the SAFE Alliance with a $1 million check in southeast Austin on Wednesday morning.

The $28 million 60-unit housing development called The Sasha will house families experiencing homelessness due to domestic violence. It will support nearly 250 adults and children fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking.

Casar said investments like these help keep people who may be consistently experiencing homelessness find a safe roof over their heads.

“We've seen from permanent supportive housing and supportive housing projects like this that we have seen arrests drop, in some cases more than 70 percent, once we make sure that people have a safe place to live, a safe place to go,” Casar said.

The Sasha is also expected to provide counseling, legal assistance, children's services, and more.

"We often hear survivors ask, 'Why didn't you leave?'" SAFE Alliance CEO Pierre Berastaín said. "That question assumes there was somewhere safe for them to go."

Berastaín said the extra federal funding will allow improvements to the development, including security upgrades.

A survivor of domestic violence who was once homeless said this will be life changing for other survivors.

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

families children homelessness safety housing

Safe space

Here's how safe Austin is compared to other big U.S. cities in 2026

Photo by Drone Doggy on Unsplash

Austin made No. 26 on the list.

Austinites have some risk in their daily lives, but overall it's a relatively safe place, according to a new study from personal finance website SmartAsset. The study ranks Austin as the No. 26 safest big city in the U.S. among 83 cities with at least 250,000 residents.

Virginia Beach, Virginia, took the top spot. It was the only city ranked higher than the Dallas suburb of Plano (No. 2).

The 2026 study looked at U.S. cities' violent crimes, property crimes, traffic deaths, and disaster risk.

Austin's violent crime rate was 4.7 for every 1,000 residents. Property crimes were predictably higher at 32.4 per 1,000 residents. And auto fatalities were 10.1 per 1,000 residents. The study also tagged Ausitn with a “relatively high” risk for natural disasters. Knowing the city's vulnerability to floods and extreme heat, that shouldn't be a big surprise.

Plano fared well in three of the four categories: 1.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, 14.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents, and 6.9 traffic deaths per 100,000 residents. Plano also had relatively high natural disaster risk.

For all cities in the study, disaster risk and traffic deaths were measured at the county level.

Plano is one of two Texas cities in the SmartAsset study’s top 10. Laredo appears at No. 6. The top 10 cities are:

1. Virginia Beach, Virginia
2. Plano, Texas
3. Madison, Wisconsin
4. Honolulu, Hawaii
5. Chesapeake, Virginia
6. Laredo, Texas
7. Lexington, Kentucky
8. Boston, Massachusetts
9. Lincoln, Nebraska
10. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“While no major population center is entirely free from danger, some are more successful than others at creating environments where people can live, work and travel with confidence,” SmartAsset says.

When it comes to lifestyle, Plano consistently ranks at or near the top of the rankings. It’s recently been named the 12th fittest city in the U.S. and the No. 4 city for raising a family, and its park system has been recognized as the country’s 13th best.

Here’s how other DFW cities rank in the SmartAsset study:

Arlington, No. 19. It had 4.8 violent crimes per 1,000, 24.1 property crimes per 1,000, 10.8 traffic deaths per 100,000, and a relatively high disaster risk.
Fort Worth, No. 22. It had 4.6 violent crimes per 1,000, 27 property crimes per 1,000, 10.8 traffic deaths per 100,000, and a relatively high disaster risk.
Irving, No. 32. It had 2.8 violent crimes per 1,000, 22 property crimes per 1,000, 12.5 traffic deaths per 100,000 and a very high disaster risk.
Dallas, No. 73, making it the 11th least safe big city. It had 6.6 violent crimes per 1,000, 33.5 property crimes per 1,000, 12.5 traffic deaths per 100,000, and a very high disaster risk.

Elsewhere in Texas:

San Antonio landed at No. 54
Houston landed at No. 82, putting it at No. 2 among the least safe big cities.

safest smartasset smartasset study safest cities safest suburbs plano