Austin honors Black-led groups after yearlong training to tackle homelessness crisis

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin city leaders recognized nine Black-led grassroots organizations on Tuesday after the groups completed a yearlong training initiative designed to strengthen their work serving people experiencing homelessness.

Mayor Kirk Watson called homelessness a true humanitarian crisis in the city of Austin, telling attendees, “I want to say I’m proud to live in a city that cares as much about this issue as we do.” He later added, “We have to do better in Austin, Texas.”

The participating organizations work on the front lines of Austin’s homelessness crisis, including groups like The Pfaith House. Founder Kimberly Holiday said her organization focuses on supporting women and children facing some of the most difficult circumstances. “We have transitional housing in Pflugerville for women and children who are actively fleeing domestic violence and or experiencing chronic homelessness,” she said.

Other honored groups include

• Black Men’s Health Clinic
• Change 1
• The Healing Project
• Hungry Hill Foundation
• Indeed Transitional Outreach Ministry
• My Sister’s Keeper ATX
• Walking by Faith Prison Ministry
• We Can Now

The groups completed a yearlong capacity-building initiative led by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, funded by the City of Austin and Indeed, to expand the organizations’ impact. Holiday said the initiative has strengthened collaboration among providers. “I believe strongly that with the cohort we have created an ecosystem to be able to support one another and also an ecosystem for those that we serve,” she said.

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David Gray, director of Austin’s Homeless Strategies and Operations Department, said the city wanted to invest in the organizations’ growth. “We wanted to invest in them, cultivate their growth and professional development, and help their organizations continue to deliver extremely high impact in our Austin community,” he said.

Gray said the cohort received professional development training from Austin Community College, one-on-one coaching from local business leaders, and lessons on mental health and wellness. “When you have a diversity of providers who are out there each and every day engaging with people, that creates more entry points for folks to come into our homeless response system,” he said.

Holiday said the training helped her turn long-term goals into a reality. “I feel very strongly that it created the infrastructure that I needed to take my vision to action, and we are changing lives.”

City officials say the organizations are now better equipped to reach more people and deliver more support where it’s needed most.