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!

The Austin city council recently voted to put on its May 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.

Bench Petition

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. 

Livable Incomes and Universal Living Wage

HtH News Fall 2020

Oct 29, 2020 |

Board Confirmations/Elections: Co-founder Cecilia Blanford elected as President/Treasurer; Will Hyatt, Chaplain & Vice-President Public Relations; Blythe Plunkett, Secretary. Member-at-Large appointments: Greg Gibson, Kevyn Meagher and JoAnn Koepke. Richard R. Troxell continues to serve as HtH National Education Director (NED).

The Board expresses deep appreciation to P.J. Liles for serving as President, having successfully completed his year of commitment and who will continue with HtH as a volunteer ambassador. Kudos were also expressed to Sylvia Troxell for a wealth of fundraising and support. Sylvia is continuing to serve as an Advisory member. Watch for our Annual Year in Review FMI including details for the Memorial Service hosted by Caritas on Sun., November 15th, which kicks off our annual appeal in support of HtH HUGSS Winter Survival Clothing give away.

Glimmer Austin has granted HtH a $10,000 COVID-19 Emergency Grant stating that “G|A is proud to support House the Homeless’ efforts to help expand and sustain direct services. G|A funding will ensure that their current strategies remain uninterrupted as they address the UNMET COVID-19 needs of the homeless population in 2020.” Thank you Glimmer Austin!

COVID-19 Resources and Organizations that Need Your Help

Mar 12, 2020 | ,

Organizations that need supplies to keep people from experiencing homelessness

  • Ending Community Homelessness Coalition
  • Integral Care
  • Salvation Army
  • Caritas of Austin
  • Austin Resource Center for the Homeless
  • Trinity Center
  • The Other Ones Foundation
  • LifeWorks
  • Mobile Loves and Fishes
  • Casa Marianella and Posada Esperanza
  • SAFE Austin
  • Family Eldercare
  • Foundation for the Homeless
  • Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center
  • Angel House
  • Street Youth Ministry
  • Saint Louise House

Information pulled from the Austin Chronicle 3/19/2020 (read the full article)

We want to recognize National Healthcare for the Homeless Council’s Townhall 4/3 Covid-19 Reaching Unsheltered People

  • An event was hosted by National Health Care for the Homeless Council on April 3, 2020. Namely, COVID-10 Town Hall Series: Reaching Unsheltered People.

Housing Now Legislative Campaign

Nov 30, 2019 | ,

“Housing is a basic human right. Homelessness is not inevitable. We can do better. 

Designed to reenergize local, state, and national advocacy, Housing NOW! 2020 provides a platform for advocates to come together to demand a significant increase in federal funding that keeps pace with rising local needs.”

Click the link below to learn about the Housing Now legislative campaign and/or join the National Coalition for the Homeless in their efforts to house the homeless.

Learn More about the Campaign

Response to Mayor Adler’s United Efforts to House the Homeless

Jun 5, 2019 | , ,

Response to Mayor Adler’s United Efforts to House the Homeless

AAS, “United Effort Needed to House Austin’s Homeless,” ‘this goal can only be reached if the city works aggressively with non-profits and private developers to make more low-income housing available across the city…Organizations, philanthropists and everyday people need to chip in.’

Mayor Adler says we should House the Homeless… we agree.

AAS calls everyone to the table, except businesses, who fail to pay basic living wages. This causes working people to live on our streets.  We cannot leave businesses (the beneficiary of the minimum wage workers) out of the equation.  Read- Looking Up at the Bottom Line…The Struggle for the Living Wage.

We continue to act as shills for robber barons. Businesses use workers to do their work and leave them only enough money to sleep under bridges, then tosses the burden to create housing, onto the back of taxpayers. Business must pay living wages. Taxpayers will help the other 48%, the disabled homeless.

Richard R. Troxell

National Education Director for House the Homeless.

Come to the Home Coming in Austin on May 18

May 14, 2019 |

It all started in 2013, when the Board of Directors of House the Homeless happened to be talking about how good art can start conversations. Co-founder and President Richard R. Troxell had an idea about how to put a positive face on homelessness — with a sculpture of multiple figures that tells a story about their homelessness. His daughter Colleen had painted oil portraits of people experiencing homelessness, so the concept seemed like a natural.

The Austin American-Statesman heard about the project and gave it front-page coverage (twice). A sculptor from Scotland called, and so did one from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. This was Timothy P. Schmalz, who happened to be rather busy at the time, what with meeting Pope Francis and all. He traveled to Rome to present a cast of his sculpture “Jesus the Homeless” which is installed outside the Papal Office of Charities.

The art of the positive

Around the world, many other copies exist of this portrayal of Christ as an anonymous figure asleep on a park bench. The wounded feet sticking out from under the blanket give away the secret. The work has caused plenty of comment, which is only fitting, as it was intended to be provocative and challenging. “Homeless Jesus,” as it is also known, is supported by a Bible verse, Matthew 25:40, whose broadest interpretation is that when someone does a kind deed to help another person, it’s the same as doing a good turn for Jesus himself.

In December of 2013 Schmalz wrote about how he had spent the last 25 years “visually translating important truths of the Bible into visual signs for people” because a visual representation can often be more powerful than the written or spoken word. He said,

The homeless project that Richard is planning will tell a much needed story at a glance to all that pass by. Richard Troxell’s vision provides a great starting place for a journey that has the potential to lead to a great work of art. This sculpture will show that ALL are valued in our democratic society and that ALL should be respected.

As an artist, I am often challenged with taking what is invisible and making it visible, subject matter such as the soul, the spirit, love, etc. Today, the homeless in our society are likewise often invisible. This sculpture will help change this and in turn, help build a more compassionate society.

Schmalz of course had many projects in hand, but he was intrigued by Troxell’s own sculpture and he had been insistent that he be part of sculpting Troxell’s vision. (Locally, Richard had studied for a year with Steve Dubov of Austin’s Atelier 3-D, making four different starts on the sculpted figures.) Timothy wanted the collaboration to happen so badly that he even came in at a quarter of the usual cost.

During the next four and a half years, the two participated in something new for them both — a long-distance collaboration. (The maestro’s business partner, Tony Frey, is also to be thanked in this endeavor.) Fundraising efforts were launched, and an event at Austin’s Umlauf Sculpture Garden saw the unveiling of a two-foot-tall version of The Home Coming.

Placement of The Home Coming statue

Originally, the hope was to place the sculpture at Austin’s Homeless Memorial crafted by Troxell years before on the shore of Lady Bird Lake. In the summer of 2014, Richard met with the Parks Department about filing a variance, with the help of engineer Gary Jaster. Complications arose when objections were raised about putting it in a flood plain, even though the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue, an earlier engineering feat of Gary, was already there. Another city department wanted to call a moratorium on all statue-related projects until its own master plan was completed.

After much complicated discussion, the City Council voted to let The Home Coming application process go ahead. Ultimately, homeless haters passed an ordinance that prevented the statue from being placed at the Homeless Memorial of 26 years. Troxell considered filing a lawsuit to force it being “grandfathered” in. However, after two more years of pushback, Troxell decided to keep the Memorial and choose another site for The Home Coming statue.

Look and listen

Now for some media clips: In “The Home Coming” (2:30) Richard introduces the figures and explains their significance. In “Home Coming Model, ” Timothy Schmalz speaks about the sculpture, and in this footage, he works on it.

We invite you to the Home Coming Unveiling Ceremony, details below:

When: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 9 a.m.
Where: Community First! Village, 9301 Hog Eye Rd., Austin, TX 78724
Getting there: The bus from downtown Austin leaves at 6:58 and 7:58 a.m. (Take the route 6, East 12th, from 7th & Colorado).
Accommodations: Out-of-town visitors are welcome to stay at the Community Inn on premises. Call 512-551-5453 or contact the Inn at communityinn@mlf.org for more information.

The Home Coming statue will be placed in the community garden. There will be live music, and free coffee and food will be served as part of the unveiling event.

Reactions?

Image by Timothy P. Schmalz

Women and Veterans in the News

May 7, 2019 |

In The Home Coming sculpture group, the male figure also represents veterans (and of course there are female veterans too). Then, there is a woman who also represents the elderly and people of color; and a young girl who also stands in for boy children, equally vulnerable and deserving. In other words, there is a lot of crossover among America’s unhoused population, including a segment with advanced degrees, all of which highlights the multifactorial nature of homelessness.

House the Homeless Co-Founder and President Richard R. Troxell is a Vietnam veteran who defeated obstacles that stood in the way of readapting to civilian life, as described in his book, Looking Up at the Bottom Line. Richard asks us to remember that generally, higher household incomes coincide with fewer reports of violence against women.

It has been know for some time that financial security buttresses the stability of mental health. When families are not constantly stressed by inability to pay bills or afford any extras, domestic violence decreases, and this connection was formally admitted in a 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

This month, we find this headline: “Increasing minimum wage, tax credits could stop over 1,200 suicides a year.” Researchers from UC Berkeley figured this out. The paper they published, “Can Economic Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair?,” is the first to prove a direct relationship between self-destruction and the minimum wage.

Former servicemembers

House the Homeless has spoken about conditions that the Veterans Administration does not seem able to fix. Here is another “hot off the presses” item:

An unidentified veteran died early Monday morning outside the emergency room of the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center in Ohio, the 7th suicide this year on a VA property and the fourth this month.

The veteran suicide toll still stands at around 20 per day, but seemingly, individuals are choosing to exit from the world in a public fashion that imparts a message. Supposedly, in a past human society in one part of the world, it was customary to point the blame at an enemy who had wronged you by committing suicide at his gate.

Is that what is going on? Another source quotes these words:

“Walk into a clinic and shoot themselves, or light him or herself on fire, what’s going on?” said Sherman Gillums, AMVET spokesperson.

“We have too many veterans that are committing suicides, too many veterans that have mental health issues and we also have this opioid problem at the same time,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito.

Has it occurred to anyone that homelessness, or the ever-impending threat of homelessness, might be contributing to this crisis? Could not having a place to live possibly be connected with these other problems?

Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams (H-PACT)

Throughout the country, in the hospitals that remain, emergency rooms bear the brunt of homelessness. The proponents of H-PACT want to change the “fragmented, costly care” paradigm for several reasons. Among veterans who receive urgent care treatment, about one in five are either back at the emergency facility and/or are hospitalized before 30 days have gone by. One source explains:

H-PACT services are intended for the most challenging and complex cases and patients that are most difficult to engage in care — such as those who have multiple morbidities, have difficulty keeping scheduled appointments, make multiple visits to the emergency department, or have underlying mental health or substance abuse needs…

The goal of H-PACT is to create a collaborative homeless medical home model eliminating barriers and obstacles to accessing quality health care by incorporating social determinants of health into care delivery, and to fast-track permanent housing placement.

Enrolled vets are said to gain housing 81 days faster than those who are not enrolled in H-PACT, and the program shaves nearly $10,000 per year off each enrolled person’s medical care bill.

Cannabis helps a lot of people with chronic pain, PTSD, and numerous other problems. But even in states where medical marijuana is legal, VA doctors are not allowed to recommend it to to their patients. Earlier this year, the Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act was introduced to address this discrepancy.

Also, please don’t miss this publication from House the Homeless and several associated organizations: “Homeless Veterans in Action Traumatic Brain Injury — A Protocol to Help Disabled Homeless Veterans within a Secure, Nurturing Community.”

The Home Coming Statue Unveiling at Austin’s Community First! Village on Saturday, May 18

House the Homeless’ Home Coming statue project has been in development for several years, the result of a collaboration between House the Homeless and sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz. The project was conceived with an idea of putting a positive face on homelessness. Richard envisioned the statue project as a memorial to those who have lost their lives to homelessness.

Thanks to funds raised exclusively for this memorial, the much-anticipated life-sized bronze statue will be introduced to the public at Austin’s Community First! Village next month. We invite you to the unveiling ceremony, details below.

When: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 9 a.m.
Where: Community First! Village, 9301 Hog Eye Rd., Austin, TX 78724
Getting there: The bus from downtown Austin leaves at 6:58 and 7:58 a.m. (Take the route 6, East 12th, from 7th & Colorado).
Accommodations: Out-of-town visitors are welcome to stay at the Community Inn on premises. Call 512-551-5453 or contact the Inn at communityinn@mlf.org for more information.

There will be live music, and free coffee and breakfast tacos will be served.

Reactions?

Source: “When Violence Hits Home: How Economics and Neighborhood Play a Role,” NCJRS.gov, 2004
Source: “Increasing minimum wage, tax credits could stop over 1,200 suicides a year,” Berkeley.edu, 04/29/19
Source: “Hours After 7th Vet Suicide at VA, Officials Repeat Plea for Public to Help,” Military.com, 04/30/19
Source: “Veterans’ suicides at VA facilities are apparent protests against poor care, advocates say,” Wavy.com, 04/22/19
Source: “VA Homelessness: Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams,” AHRQ.gov
Source: “Three Cannabis Issues Congress Needs to Tackle,” Townhall.com, 02/16/19
Image courtesy House the Homeless

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