Jimmy James came to the Esperanza Community after googling “Texas homeless camps.” He had been living on the streets of Houston for about three years, and he arrived in Austin to find an encampment of roughly 150 people living in tents and temporary shelters on a sprawling, flat slab of asphalt off U.S. 183 The site had once been a Texas Department of Transportation storage lot. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, designated the site for camping in late 2019 in an effort to divert unhoused people from downtown Austin. The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF) came to the camp in the summer of 2020 to work in partnership with the residents and other organizations to create a safe community where people could access crucial support services. As a result of this collaboration, the encampment evolved into the Esperanza Community, named through popular vote by the people living there, and guided by a similarly elected leadership committee of residents. “I think this is going to prove to be a model of a safe and dignified place where people can get out of the streets and work through the system to find housing,” said Max Moscoe, TOOF’s communications manager. That has already proven to be the case for many Esperanza residents, including Jimmy. After living at Esperanza Community for about nine months, he was able to move into permanent housing at Community First! Village.

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Learn more about The Other Ones Foundation and the Esperanza Community at toofound.org. Learn more about find help and our storytelling initiative at findhelpfilms.com.