Ann Gill Howard

Ann Howard is the first Executive Director of the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) in Austin. After 1 year of Ann's leadership, THN named ECHO the Outstanding Coalition in the State.
ECHO has garnered the support of partner agencies, community leaders & funders to transform the response to homelessness. Austin now triages all clients experiencing homelessness to match them with appropriate housing & services, prioritizing the most vulnerable clients first. ECHO stakeholders reached an effective end to Veteran homelessness & exceeded goals set in a 100-Day Challenge to tackle youth homelessness. ECHO secured a $5.2M demonstration grant from HUD that will reshape how Austin prevents & ends homelessness for youth. ECHO has secured $1.3M to support Texas’s first Pay for Success funding model project to scale up Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH).
Ann’s leadership is felt throughout the Austin community. She participated on the Mayor's Task Force on the Innovation Zone in 2014 & was active in the campaign to pass the recent $65M Affordable Housing Bonds & City Resolutions to dedicate proceeds from a downtown Density program to housing first PSH and to set a new goal to build 400 units of PSH. Currently, City leadership is discussing ways to identify dedicated funding streams to ensure adequate funding exists to end homelessness in Austin.
Ann is a 2017 inductee to the Austin Women’s Hall of Fame and will be recognized for “respect” by the First Tee of Greater Austin. In 2016, Ann served as Chair of One Voice Central Texas, a coalition of nearly 100 social service agency executive directors, who under Ann’s leadership worked successfully to increase City funding dedicated to social services and formed a Diversity Task Force to strengthen the organizations and their role in the community. Ann has been recognized by the Foundation for the Homeless & Front Steps.
Ann is an alum of Univ. of TX, (JD & MPA).