Voices from the Street
Breaking the silence - creating an opening for a broader understanding of those who are unheard
A joint project of the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Population Health's Center for Community-Driven Initiatives, and the Center for Health Communication
This project was made possible through funding from:
Learn more about the project's methods, limitations, and consent process .
Across the United States, 552,830 people experience homelessness on any given night.¹
Of these individuals, over 36,000 are unaccompanied youth under age 25, living on their own without parents or children.²
In our community of Austin, Texas, at least 607 unaccompanied youth and young adults aged 18-24 experience literal homelessness over the course of a year, sleeping in places not meant for human habitation or staying in shelter.³
During the 2016-2017 school year, public schools in Travis County identified 1,944 homeless children and youth, 186 of them unaccompanied by an adult.⁴
Several key factors are important to understanding the landscape of homelessness in Travis County.
People experiencing homelessness in Austin/Travis County represent a diverse population who face many challenges. That said, Black or African-American individuals are disproportionately represented in the homeless population within our community. People who are black make up only 8% of the county population, but 34% of the homeless population.⁵ Moreover, it is estimated that as much as 40% of the youth homeless population identifies as Black or African-American.⁶ This is a consequence of structural racism in our city and county.
The population of youth experiencing homelessness in Travis County is demographically different from youth experiencing homelessness nationwide. Compared to homeless and unstably housed youth nationwide, Travis County youth are:
- Less likely to receive any benefits, such as Medical Access Program insurance, SNAP, or other government programs⁷
- More likely to have spent time in juvenile detention, jail, or prison⁷
- More likely to have been in foster care⁷
On a national level, LGBTQIA+ youth are over-represented in the population of youth experiencing homelessness - in Austin, it is estimated that 23% of youth identified as LGBTQIA+, more than triple the number of LGBTQIA+ youth in the general population.⁸
People experiencing homelessness are pushed to the fringes of our society, frequently enduring immense stigma and persecution - often coming from individuals who are housed.
Below is a visualization of just some of the stigmatizing words associated with individuals experiencing homelessness. These stereotypes have a profound effect on individual's ability to access services and their own mental health.
Homelessness influences every aspect of an individual's life and well-being, often with cascading effects, especially for their mental and physical health. These are the stories of some of our neighbors who have experienced these effects firsthand.
Explore the streets of Austin, TX, through their experiences.
The path to homelessness for youth is varied, with a multitude of influencing factors. Ultimately, the breakdown of family and community is a critical factor for most young people living on the street.
The Chapin Hall Voices of Youth Point-In-Time Count, conducted in 2016, included individual interviews with youth experiencing homelessness. Youth named foster case, family homelessness, the struggles of their parents, and persistent family conflict as some of the most common causes of their own homelessness.⁹
Health outcomes in Travis County are starkly different depending on where you live.
Depending on the ZIP code you live in, your average age of death in Travis County can range from a low of 59 years old to a high of 81 years old. This is a difference of twenty-two years, as demonstrated in the inset map.
In a recent study, for people experiencing homelessness, the average life span was shorter by about 17.5 years than that recorded for the general population - only 56 years old for men and 52 years old for women.¹⁰
Eastern Travis County is disproportionately low-income and has a higher percentage of Black, African-American and Hispanic individuals. These populations are at greater risk than average for becoming homeless in our community. This is due to structural factors, and is not inherent to race or ethnicity.
The difference in household median income between eastern Travis County and western Travis County can be as much as $190,000, as show in the inset map.
For youth experiencing homelessness in Austin, health care is a human right they cannot access except in cases of emergency.
Even then, youth often cannot afford the financial burden of care, or the trauma the healthcare system sometimes exposes them to.
LifeWorks , a major service provider for youth experiencing homelessness and housing instability, found that only 63% of youth receiving services in 2018 and 2019 had some kind of health insurance.¹¹
Of those, only a tiny fraction - 3% - were covered by the Medical Access Program (MAP) , which provides limited coverage to Travis County residents in need.¹²
Individuals experiencing homelessness also shoulder the burden, both literally and figuratively, of carrying their lives with them everywhere they go.
It is impossible for most people to imagine physically carrying everything they own, including their most important possessions, everywhere they go. Yet this is the reality of many individuals living on the street.
This day-to-day routine impacts physical health - due to carrying heavy packs, walking long distances, and being exposed to the elements - but it also affects mental health, as youth must worry about their own safety and the safety of their belongings constantly.
Homelessness can be traumatic and devastating, especially when it comes to mental health.
Youth in our community are particularly vulnerable. Based on data provided by local, youth-focused non-profit LifeWorks , approximately 49% of youth they served in 2018-2019 had a mental health or substance use concern of some kind.¹³
Among 204 literally homeless youth assessed in Travis County in 2016, 56% had experienced a traumatic event or a mental health issue.¹⁴
The chronic stress of homelessness can amplify existing mental health needs and create new ones, in addition to resurfacing past trauma. The risk of experiencing new trauma is also a constant threat, particularly for youth.
Violence on the street is a real and pervasive risk. Many youth have been victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking while experiencing homelessness.
Our health care system forces providers to see more patients in increasingly limited amounts of time.
The patients that lose the most in this environment are those with complex needs - which includes most youth experiencing homelessness.
Interactions with healthcare providers are often fraught with anxiety, fear, and mistrust for youth due to past negative experiences. Most individuals crave to be treated with an open mind, instead of being approached as "non-compliant," "medication-seeking," or intentionally hiding the truth.
We compiled what several youth wished they could share with healthcare providers about how to better serve patients experiencing homelessness.
The experience of homelessness in Austin is heavily influenced by the history of our city and policies related to segregation, population growth, and gentrification.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, local, state, and federal governments all enacted significant policy changes that forced the segregation of whites from non-whites in Austin. Backed by this policy framework, the City of Austin enacted its first comprehensive plan in 1928, calling for the creation of a "negro district" in East Austin through the allocation of separate but equal public resources such as schools and parks.
Additional measures such as deed restrictions and city ordinances made buying and renting homes outside of East Austin prohibited for Hispanics/Latinos and Blacks. Racial segregation patterns were strengthened by the federal government in 1934 through the Housing and Loans Corporations' (HOLC) ratings for mortgage risk.¹⁵ These ratings marked African American areas as "hazardous" - code for risky for financial investment.¹⁶ This kept the areas away from the capital needed for reinvestment.¹⁷ The below map shows this historical practice of redlining in Austin.
Map of Austin Redlining, July 1934
Patterns in race and housing remained largely unchanged until the 2000's. These policies laid the groundwork for the gentrification patterns currently being observed in East Austin as the city population has expanded and continues to expand rapidly.
Explore the timeline below for an overview of relevant events.
Historic segregation has strongly influenced several drivers of homelessness in Austin and continues to do so to this day. Exponential growth has compounded these discriminatory systems, policies, and structures.
Travis County and the city of Austin have gone through multiple periods of population growth since Austin was founded in 1839.
Growth from 1970 to 1980 saw the city of Austin adding more than 94,000 residents, a significant increase from the previous decade.
For the following maps, dark shades of blue reflect larger growth than lighter shades. Click the bottom left icon to see map legends or click on the map to explore specific areas.
From 1980 to 1990, population growth began to concentrate in western, northern, and southern Travis County, with the overall population for the city of Austin growing by more than 119,000 people.
From 1990 to 2000, population growth boomed. By 2000, the population of Austin was at 656,562 people, an increase of almost 191,000 people in 10 years.
Growth slowed slightly during 2000 to 2010, possibly due to the Great Recession.
Compared to historical trends, however, we were still growing rapidly - a net gain of around 134,000 people in the city over the course of this decade.
Recent growth has made Austin the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country for eight consecutive years, from 2011 to today.¹⁸
As of April 2019, the city of Austin had a population of 985,504 people, a growth of almost 200,000 people in just nine years.
Travis County's population is now 1.3 million people, with the greater Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) population registering at 2.2 million.
This growth has resulted in widespread issues around household affordability. Increasingly, low-income households are being displaced from the city limits and pushed into the suburbs.
Rising home values and rental costs have contributed to this trend, resulting in the displacement of long-term residents, many of whom are people of color.
The rise in housing costs has outpaced wage growth. As a result, the median existing home sales price in July 2018 in the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area had risen to $310,000.¹⁹
The economic barriers to success in our community are high and getting higher, particularly for the most vulnerable.
At the end of 2015, as many as 25% of households within the City of Austin were food insecure.²⁰
This means roughly 1 in 4 families in our community struggled to put nutritious food on the table.
For individuals experiencing homelessness, this challenge is even more pronounced. Though many service providers offer hot meals and food pantries, barriers exist that make these resources hard to access for some youth. These include, but are not limited to:
- Locations that may be difficult to access from where youth are staying
- Restricted open days and hours, sometimes only once a week for a few hours
- Locations that are often small and have limited exits, which may feel unsafe
- Lines and/or crowds
- Adult-focused services, which may make youth feel vulnerable
- Food that requires preparation rather than being ready-to-eat
Below is a map of service providers that focus on hot meals and food pantries for individuals experiencing homelessness. Click on the points to learn more about the different locations.
Food Resources Map
The LGBTQIA+ population is overrepresented in the population of people experiencing homelessness.²¹
The Voices of Youth Count by the University of Chicago Chapin Hall reports LGBTQIA+ youth as being 120% more likely to report homelessness compared to youth who identify as heterosexual and cisgender. Homeless LGBTQIA+ youth also experience a much higher degree of sexual violence than their heterosexual peers.²²
In the City of Austin, recent surveys suggest that the LGBTQIA+ population makes up 23% of the youth homeless population, or about three times the number of LGBTQIA+ youth in the general population.²³
LGBTQIA+ youth experience high rates of adversity and trauma in their lives. Factors that lead LGBTQIA+ youth to become homeless include family abuse, neglect, or conflict over their identity.²⁴
Adversity does not stop inside the home. Outside of the home there is a general lack of acceptance.
Transgender youth are particularly vulnerable to this, and are harassed, assaulted, and arrested by police due to their gender presentation.²⁵
Sexual victimization is also higher for LGBTQIA+ youth compared to heterosexual youth. LGBTQIA+ youth are also more vulnerable to being asked for sex in exchange for food, money, drugs, shelter, and clothing than heterosexual homeless youth.²⁶
LGBTQIA+ homeless youth frequently report poor mental health. Suicide attempts and depression are higher for youth who identify as LGBTQIA+ overall. Difficulties are further compounded if the youth is a person of color.
Lastly, substance use is also higher for LGBTQIA+ homeless youth because of the environment and adversities that they frequently face. Unfortunately, this behavior also brings the population closer in contact with law enforcement.²⁷
On average, 95.5% of Austin households owned at least one car between 2013 and 2017.²⁸
For youth experiencing homelessness, transportation is a constant struggle. Our city is built around the assumption that most people have access to a car. Without one, youth must rely on other methods of getting around.
The City of Austin has a well-established transportation authority that was founded in 1985, known as Capital Metro . Capital Metro runs the local bus and commuter rail system.
Though there are more options than ever before, unreliable service, long travel times, and limited access to certain parts of town make the service frustrating for those that must rely on it every day.
Though walking, riding a bicycle, or renting a scooter are alternatives if youth can afford them, they are often inadequate in the face of Austin's urban sprawl and temperamental climate.
Because of these challenges, travel can be significantly more difficult for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Navigating the bus system requires pre-planning and flexibility, which can be impossible for youth on the street. To illustrate this, let's work through one young woman's day and how she gets around.
You start your day at a walk-in consultation at SafePlace.
You have recently split up from your partner and are looking for resources. After getting the help you can, you prepare to move on with your day by traveling to get lunch.
You need to get to LifeWorks from SafePlace. There is no way to do this with only one bus.
You will have to take two buses, the 310 and the 300. The 310 runs every thirty minutes most of the time, while the 300 runs every fifteen minutes. You'll need $1.25 for bus fare or a day pass, which costs $2.50.
This trip will take you 47 minutes, if you make the transfer and your buses run on time.
In a car, this six-mile trip would take 15 minutes.
Often, meals are only served at specific times. In this case, lunch is at 12pm, and may not be available beyond that.
You could attempt to get lunch elsewhere, but LifeWorks is helping you by serving as a place you can receive mail, and you're expecting to receive a new identification card. You decide it would be a good idea to check in.
In order to be there on time, you must leave almost an hour beforehand, assuming the buses are running on schedule.
You can't spend too long on lunch. You have a doctor's appointment across town at 1:30pm.
If you don't leave by a little before 1pm, you will miss your bus and be late.
You once again need to take the 300, this time direct. If all goes well, it should take around 30 minutes, about twice as long as it would in a car.
Your doctor's appointment takes over an hour, and you have to get some additional tests. You aren't able to leave until close to 3pm.
You wanted to stop by Micah 6's food pantry, which is only open from 6pm - 7pm.
You have some time until then, but nowhere to go. Because the bus isn't always reliable, you decide to go ahead and travel to the area and find somewhere to try to rest until the food pantry opens.
This trip will also take two buses, the 10 and the 1, totaling almost 40 minutes. Both run regularly, but on different schedules.
After you visit the food pantry, you need to travel to the south location of LifeWorks, where you have heard they will offer emergency shelter tonight.
The weather is supposed to be below freezing and you have heard you can find a bed there.
Again, two buses will be required - the 3 and the 20. Another 40 minutes of travel, assuming everything goes exactly as planned.
In this example, you would spend at least 2.5 hours on the bus if everything went perfectly.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Limited funds, unreliable buses, and exhaustion often prevent individuals experiencing homelessness from trying to do this much in one day.
The locations we show here are relatively central. If you are trying to go further, service coverage becomes more limited and wait times are longer.
The day-to-day reality of living on the street means that many people must be occupied with meeting their basic needs first.
An average day for a young person experiencing homelessness is vastly different depending on the individual, however, there are many similarities. Often the focus is on shelter or a place to sleep first - a basic need that can be hard to meet in a city like Austin.
At least 2,255 people are experiencing homelessness each night in Austin. Of those, at least 107 are youth.²⁹
More likely than not, this number is a large under count. There are any number of reasons someone might not be counted on a given night, and youth are particularly vulnerable and may take steps to protect themselves from being found for organized counts.
Unfortunately, there are only 500-600 shelter beds available to meet this need each night.³⁰
Of those, many have restrictions on what qualifies you for a bed, and waitlists are hundreds of people long.
Austin City Council has been collaborating with local nonprofits to up the number of shelter beds by at least 600 in 2020. But even that number will not fill the enormous need we have as a community.
In Austin, services for individuals experiencing homelessness are plentiful.
Access to them is not.
Many barriers can prevent someone from accessing available resources, most of which are systemic. They include, but are not limited to:
- Lack of proper identification or the funds to replace these important documents when they are lost or stolen
- Lack of health insurance
- Lack of funds to pay for needed medication, transportation, food, shelter, etc.
- Lack of reliable transportation, leading to missed appointments
- Difficult to navigate public transportation, with significant service gaps and delays
- Overburdened social service system due to population growth, leading to long waitlists
- Services that are not trauma-informed, leading to retraumatization or avoidance
- Negative stereotypes reinforced by some service providers
For youth, this issue is compounded as few service providers focus on youth experiencing homelessness specifically.
In Austin, most service providers serve all ages, but this does not mean they are accessible or utilized by youth on the street for a variety of reasons. The first map below shows youth-specific resources.
Services for the wider population of all individuals experiencing homelessness are shown on the map below.
The resource landscape for youth, as you can see, is limited for a metropolitan area of our size compared to that of the general population experiencing homelessness. Youth are generally wary of adult-focused services, due to concerns around safety, confusion about navigating systems, or just a lack of comfort with service providers who do not understand their unique needs.
Hear from some of the youth in our project about what resources have been most helpful to them in Austin.
Volunteering a few hours of your time can make a significant positive impact for someone currently experiencing homelessness.
Our universal capability to hope and dream is something we all share.
Youth homelessness is part of many people's experience, but it does not define them.
Open your heart. Say hello. Hear someone else's story.
Sources
1 State of Homelessness. (2018, January). Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/
2 Ibid.
3 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) & LifeWorks. (2017). Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County. Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County (p. 11). Austin, TX.
4 Ibid.
5 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). (2018). Austin's Action Plan to End Homelessness. Austin's Action Plan to End Homelessness (p. 22). Austin, TX.
6 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). Youth Homelessness Needs Assessment. December 2017. Percentages based on Coordinated Assessment surveys of 201 youth households per 09/30/16.
7 Voices of Youth Count. (2017). Travis County, Texas: Report on youth homelessness: Findings from the youth count, brief youth survey, and provider survey. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.
8 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). (2017, January). TX-503 Point in Time Count (PIT); Newport, F. (2019, September 4). In U.S., Estimate of LGBT Population Rises to 4.5%. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population-rises.aspx .
9 Voices of Youth Count. (2017). Travis County, Technical Report on Youth Homelessness: Findings from the In-Depth Interviews. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago: Chicago, IL.
10 Romaszko, J., Cymes, I., Dragańska, E., Kuchta, R., & Glińska-Lewczuk, K. (2017). Mortality among the homeless: Causes and meteorological relationships. PloS one, 12(12), e0189938. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0189938
11 Data provided courtesy of LifeWorks (2019)
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) & LifeWorks. (2017). Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County. Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County (p. 13). Austin, TX.
15 Tretter, E. M. (2012). Austin Restricted: Progressivism, Zoning, Private Racial Covenants, and the Making of a Segregated City. (pp. 3–30). Austin, TX: Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Cross, B. (2019, April 18). Austin leads nation in population growth for 8 consecutive years. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/austin-leads-nation-in-population-growth-for-8-consecutive-years
19 Gaines, J. P., Torres, L. B., Miller, W., & Woodson, P. (2018). Texas Housing Insight. Texas Housing Insight (p. 19). College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Real Estate Center.
20 The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Policy Research Project Co-Led by Erin C. Lentz, PhD, and Raj Patel, PhD. (2016). Food for All: Inclusive Neighborhood Planning in North Austin. Food for All: Inclusive Neighborhood Planning in North Austin (p. 8). Austin, TX: The Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs.
21 Lambda Legal, National Alliance to End Homelessness, nn4y, National Center for Lesbian Rights. (2009). National Recommended Best Practices for Serving for Lgbt Homeless Youth. National Recommended Best Practices for Serving for LGBT Homeless Youth (p. 1). Washington, DC.
22 Ibid.
23 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) & LifeWorks. (2017). Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County. Ending Youth Homelessness in Austin/Travis County (p. 15). Austin, TX.
24 Lambda Legal, National Alliance to End Homelessness, nn4y, National Center for Lesbian Rights. (2009). National Recommended Best Practices for Serving for Lgbt Homeless Youth. National Recommended Best Practices for Serving for LGBT Homeless Youth (p. 1). Washington, DC.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 Carlino, R. M., & Franklin, A. (2018). One Size Fails All Report Series: Out of Sight: LGBTQ Youth and Adults in Texas’ Justice Systems (p. 5; L. Linder & D. Smith, eds.). Austin, TX: Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.
28 U.S. Census Bureau (2019). Selected household size by vehicles available characteristics, 2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Retrieved from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_5YR_B08201&prodType=table
29 Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). (2019, January). TX-503 Point in Time Count (PIT)
30 Oak, M. (2019, November 11). Shelter beds in Austin: Are any available? Retrieved December 19, 2019, from KVUE website: https://www.kvue.com/article/money/consumer/local-experts/austin-homeless-available-shelter-beds/269-288b70f8-20da-4a3f-af75-a873e61262a4
Credits
This ArcGIS StoryMap and associated content were generated in collaboration between the Austin Youth Collective and the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry , Department of Population Health , and the Center for Health Communication .
Project concept was generated by Austin Youth Collective members led by Rhie Azzam Morris in collaboration with Kathryn Flowers , Michelle Ramirez, and Laura Brown .
Writing and story design by Kathryn Flowers using the conceptual direction generated by Austin Youth Collective . Video and photography by Joe Van Wyk . Health communication consulting by Laura Brown . Graphics and maps by Jeffrey Rivas. Additional support by Danica Fraher.
Youth with lived experience are identified by pseudonyms in featured videos. This project would not have been possible without their willingness to share their personal stories.
This project was overseen by Cathy Stacy and Lloyd Berg , principal investigators.
Learn more about the project's methods, limitations, and consent process .
