Coalition Focuses on Homeless Awareness

November 15, 2011 5:00 am by: Jessica Mahoney

Advocates say homeless individuals can often feel isolated within their communities. Photo by Erik Reyna/KUT News

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This week, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition and the Basic Needs Coalition are joining forces to host Austin’s observance of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Organizers of the 10-day event hope to dispel some myths about the homeless population.

Liz Ihry Simmons, chair of Austin’s Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, said the week’s events are geared toward people who may not be as aware of the issues surrounding homelessness in Central Texas. According to Simmons, there are two pervasive myths regarding homelessness.

“Austin has a lot of panhandlers, and I think that a lot of people assume that if you’re a homeless, you’re a panhandler. That’s just not true,” Ihry Simmons told KUT News. “There are people who panhandle who have homes [and] there are people who panhandle who do not.”

The other myth, she said, is that all homeless people have problems with drug and alcohol abuse. One of the goals for this week is to start­ conversations aimed at dispelling those notions.

On Saturday, the ECHO Family Festival ends the week-long awareness campaign. It’s billed as a carnival. The family-friendly event will offer fun activities to help educate families on how to talk about homelessness.

“I think really the only wrong way is just to ignore it. Kids have a lot of questions about homelessness. When they see someone panhandling, or they see somebody that’s outside that doesn’t have a home, they have a lot of questions for parents,” said Amber Fogarty, who is in charge of the event.

A facet of homelessness that many people don’t think about, according to Liz Irhy Simmons, is the lack of community. Without somewhere to be or anyone to answer to, such as an employer, the homeless are often left feeling disconnected from society.

“And so having a group that you’re accountable to – having people who are going to miss you if you’re not there, who are going to follow up with you if you’re not there – is a great thing, and a great thing towards getting hope that there is a better future for you, that there is something else out there,” Irhy Simmons said.

Working locally to bridge that community gap are programs like Art from the Streets, which offers free art classes to homeless individuals twice a week and hosts an annual show for participants to sell their work and keep the proceeds. Since inception, fifteen shows have garnered over $550,000 in art sales and admissions fees.

You can find a complete list of the activities for the rest of this week here.