
Our Mission
Founded in 1989, HtH is the oldest all volunteer, action, homeless organization in the state of Texas. The mission is Education and Advocacy around the issues of ending and preventing homelessness.
Urgent Issues
Re-Criminalizing Homelessness — Speak up now!

HtH supports the direction being taken by the City of Austin’s relatively new Homeless Strategy Office, led by a very committed and responsive David Gray, and with the commitment of Charles Loosen and other staff. We further strongly advocate ALL positions below that preceded The vote to basically criminalize homelessness — especially:
reinstating a camping ban must consider that those with disabilities, the aged, and in fact anyone with no place to go. The no sit/no lie ordinance is absolutely inhumane and unconscionable we must have at least 15 minute respites particularly for those with disabilities and make other provisions.
Mayor Kirk Watson, elected in 2023, is working to secure funding for homeless services from the State and within the City Budget.
2025 interests:
City Council approved a resolution making homelessness a top financial priority.
Increase the capacity of the Homeless Strategy Office to address and implement a comprehensive approach to strategic advancements in homelessness response. (Plan detailed in a 50-page memo from David Gray, June 2025).
Examples:
1. Expand HOST (Homeless Outreach Street Team) support including team members:
APD officers, EMS paramedics, behavioral health clinicians, social workers, peer support staff.
2. Support for Marshaling Yard operations.
3. Rapid Response housing and safe housing, especially for families.
4. Increase shelter beds with support; and more.
The Austin city council recently voted to put on its May 2021 ballot a vote to reinstate the no camping ban including the no sit/no lie ordinances. Now is the time to contact your mayor and council members particularly those who have supported decriminalizing homelessness, such as Mayor Adler, Kathy Tovo, Ann Kitchen, Greg Casar, Sabino Renteria, and others, we pray.
First call to action is cold weather shelter. Anyone that reads this, our urgent plea is to email our mayor and city council in this urgent time of cold weather. House the Homeless is encouraging to use the Convention Center or other alternatives sites that are already over burdened due to Covid-19 or at capacity.
A second call to action is to not displace unsheltered neighbors from bridges and the four major camp areas without having an immediate plan for alternative shelter/housing.
Finally, advise your mayor and council members that the wording for the May ballot regarding reinstating a camping ban must consider that those with disabilities, the aged, and in fact anyone with no place to go. The no sit/no lie ordinance is absolutely inhumane and unconscionable we must have at least 15 minute respites particularly for those with disabilities and make other provisions.
Federal Minimum Wage Debate

Federal resolve is insufficient; highly recommend Universal Living Wage formula indexed on the cost of housing wherever the person lives and works.


Poverty and Homelessness Virtual Conference
Reimagining Education: Collectively Advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The presentation will include Kids for Kids Sake Videos submitted by House the Homeless.
Date: April 23, 2022
Time: 1-4 p.m.

Bring America Home Now — Interfaith Launch
Join Bring America Home Now (BAHN) on March 17th, 2022 at 6 p.m. for their virtual Interfaith Launch event.
Speakers:
- Rev. John P. Kee
- Pastor Michelle Bush
- Donal Whitehead
Details
- Meeting ID: 838 5625 0099
- Passcode: 498152

Annual HtH Homeless Memorial Service
Amid The Pandemic, Austin Remembers The 256 Homeless Deaths On Austin’s Streets In 2021
In a year marred by uncertainty and loss, homeless Austinites and advocates gathered Sunday morning to remember and read the names of the 256 homeless Austinites who died in 2020 – an increase of more than 70 deaths compared to last year.
Click the link below to read the full article from Austin’s NPR Station:
https://www.kut.org/2020-11-18/amid-the-pandemic-austin-remembers-the-256-homeless-deaths-on-austins-streets-in-2020
Click the link below to read the full article from NewsBreak:
https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0cwYmgIp?pd=0AZCstoF&lang=en_US&s=i16


Keynote Speaker Chris Baker, Executive Director, The Other Ones Foundation

HUGSS 2021 – 350 backpacks with winter gear distributed to those experiencing homelessness
HUGSS 2021
350 backpacks prepared by volunteers with winter gear. Distributed on Jan 1st 2021 to those experiencing homelessness. Despite the cold, rain, and other conditions these items were given at multiple sites by volunteers.
View a few photos from the event:




HUGSS New Year’s Day event for winter resources
House the Homeless’ annual HUGSS Winter survival volunteer event was held outdoors on Saturday, January 1st 2022, at First Baptist Austin. Just under 250 individuals experiencing homelessness were provided a hot BBQ lunch and backpack with HUGSS (hat, under thermals, gloves, scarves, socks, or other items).




HUGSS Thermal Give Event Sat. Jan 1st 2022
For decades, HtH has raised funds for HUGSS (hats, under-thermals, gloves, scarves and socks to gift to individual men, women, and youth experiencing homelessness in the greater Austin area. Our New Year’s Day party is again planned at and with gratitude to First Baptist Church of Austin, 901 Trinity St., Saturday, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Music, Lunch, HUGSS bags. Other resources on-site. Volunteers please call 512-565-1388 fmi. DISTANCING AND OTHER COVID SAFETY PRECAUTIONS (Plan B for cooperative distribution if necessary, similar to 2021.

Take Action Now! Support Housing as Infrastructure
In the next two weeks, please urge your US Senator (202) 224-3121 to support housing as infrastructure with a generous contribution to the Build Back Better initiative going to the development of affordable housing. House the Homeless is a partner organization of the National Homeless Coalition (NCH) and NCH will be sponsoring a couple of days to specifically call Senators Manchin and Sinema who for some reason has become the center of the universe when it comes to voting rights and infrastructure spending.
Thanks.
Richard R. Troxell

Presenting before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops – Basilica Statue Project
Please wish us well and keep us in your prayers as Sylvia and I head back to Washington DC. On the way there, we will detour to Baltimore Maryland. We have been invited to present before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. On this Sunday, November 14th, I will speak for exactly 10 minutes in an effort to convince the Catholic Church to accept the Homeless-Home Coming statue at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. on the grounds of Catholic University.
The statue is the story of a chance encounter between strangers, who have lost all material things. Warming themselves at a fire barrel, the little girl, Colleen, sees, then, calls to the old woman. She urges her father to reach out to the African American woman to share the fire. Bent over from life’s burdens and trudging through the woods, she has lost all hope. She is coming from nowhere and going nowhere. Colleen realizes that the old woman is also suffering some kind of visual impairment as she wanders through the darkness. Ms. Anateen, is sure she could not possibly dare enter the camp of strangers. Colleen repeatedly calls to the old woman to join them. “Come on, come on,” she called as if calling to her puppy. Finally, John, a Veteran and Colleen’s father, takes her lead with a broad smile and a booming voice, “Come on ahead old woman. All are welcome here!” The woman, also destitute, very cold and very tired, is overwhelmed by the invitation. She drops her bags. Air escapes her lungs. Her hand covers her heart. Her gaze turns toward the heavens. Humbly, she offers up a whispered prayer, “Thank you Jesus.” While my concept, the sculpting was a collaborative effort between Timothy P. Schmalz (heralded as “The Michelangelo of our times”) and myself when it was sculpted over 4 1/2 years, over the phone.
Thank you.
Richard

Vote NO on Prob B
All Austin voters have a choice to make in the coming weeks. The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) is asking you to make the humane, evidence-based, right choice: Vote NO on Prop B.
Prop B would make it a crime for people living in extreme poverty to sit down and rest, to live in a tent when they have no other option, and even just to ask for assistance to meet their basic needs.
It would not help unhoused Austinites access housing.
It would not help our neighbors find new shelter space in a system that’s already at capacity.
It would not create or fund any new programs to help our neighbors experiencing homelessness rebuild the safe, stable foundation people need to be able not only to thrive but also to weather life’s storms.
Criminalizing the actions a person takes in order to survive under unimaginable conditions is the same as criminalizing that condition. Prop B criminalizes many of the actions a person experiencing homelessness may need to take in order to survive. Therefore, Prop B criminalizes homelessness.
Homelessness is unacceptable in such a wealthy city in the wealthiest country on the planet. We can do better to provide human services rather than punitive responses to people experiencing homelessness. No one wants to see our neighbors – the majority of whom were housed in the Austin area before falling into homelessness – forced to live in unsafe, unstable conditions on sidewalks and under overpasses. But forcing people instead to hide in the woods or creek beds where we don’t have to see homelessness is not a solution. The solution is housing. Criminalizing homelessness will neither serve those in need, nor will it scale up housing to meet the need.
In fact, Prop B would actively make ending homelessness more difficult. Under these proposed ordinances, unhoused Austinites would receive more and more citations and fines. Almost 3 in 5 citations turned into arrest warrants between 2015 and 2018, according to KUT, because people couldn’t pay, get to court, or receive mail requesting payment or a court appearance in the first place. Those warrants negatively impact credit scores and show up on apartment and employment screenings, further complicating people’s efforts to get back on their feet. Prop B is not a solution; it only creates additional barriers for people striving to exit homelessness.
Recriminalizing homelessness would also have a disproportionate impact on our Black neighbors experiencing homelessness. Centuries of racism and inequities in our systems, including housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice, and employment have led to what we see in our homeless response system today: A Black Austinite is at least 4.8 times more likely than a white Austinite to experience homelessness. Black people make up more than 1 in 3 people experiencing homelessness in Austin, but less than 1 in 10 people in Travis County’s population. By contrast, non-Hispanic whites make up 33 percent of people experiencing homelessness; and Latinos, 25 percent of the total population experiencing homelessness. Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and those who are multi-racial make up the remainder.
About 1 in 4 people booked into the Travis County jail is Black. Creating additional criminal offenses for people who are unsheltered will disproportionately impact unhoused Black people, potentially resulting in increased rates of incarceration and, too often, returns to unsheltered homelessness with fewer prospects to access safe, stable housing. Criminalizing homelessness makes both our homeless response and criminal justice systems not only more inequitable but more inhumane.
We know from decades of research that the first step toward ending someone’s homelessness is a home. Our current system simply doesn’t have enough housing for everyone in need. ECHO and our community partners work every day to increase investments in and access to safe and affordable housing and supportive services to provide more of our neighbors with the stability needed to build a solid foundation. Our local, state, and federal partners must prioritize safe and affordable housing programs and fund these resources at levels that will make a real difference for our unhoused neighbors. These are the real solutions we need our community to rally around.

