keep Amy safe from the heat and sleeping outdoors

Hi! My name is Kerry. Two years ago, I used to be the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Austin, Texas. Our team spent 5 years working on innovative solutions to homelessness. In that capacity, I met Amy, who was part of our Homelessness Advisory Council.**

Earlier this year, our loving, witty, feisty, ailing friend Amy experienced a medical emergency, was hospitalized for a month, afterwards accumulated "lease violations", and was eventually evicted into the heat dome in Austin, TX in June. Her home health care nurse notice lease violation notices. Her case managers tried to help intervene. She appealed and lost.

Amy had to give up her cats, and her stability - logistics required her to skip necessary medical appointments. Amy is 69 years old, is battling heart disease, has COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which causes oxygen deprivation. Amy he does not have a criminal background, nor has she ever used drugs. She has never been married, has no children and her parents deceased one estranged sibling whose whereabouts are unknown to her for more than a decade.

Her friends and peers on the Homelessness Advisory Council would not let her go to sleep behind Walmart. They fundraised to keep her safe, given that her heart condition, high blood pressure, COPD, and mobility issues meant a very likely death on the streets of Austin in 100+ degree heat.

It’s a simple case: elderly woman got evicted, has no place to go, is medically compromised, will die in the heat. And yet...

Amy has been on a “Wait List” for more than 50 days to enter into a temporary shelter. She has been told that she is “next on the list” for “The Sober House.” She must call case management every day to see if an opening has occurred. She hears:

"You're on the list for temporary shelters"...

"it's a process"...

"we know this is scary but we are trying very hard to find something for you"...

"we are also checking for permanent housing but that takes a longer wait time and process"...

Amy says those case managers were "very nice and offered encouraging words of comfort."

There are no shelter beds currently available. Amy cannot be a roommate with any of her Advisory Council peers - it would mean a lease violation for any of them to keep them with her for more than 3-4 days. Amy cannot accept funds herself - she would risk her social security and other means-tested benefits. Even being in a hotel risks her "homeless" status, which is insanity, because if she remained homeless in this heat, she would die.

The Washington Post recently published an article that said when it comes to vulnerable populations and heat - they need to play it safe on every scale:

"Any risk factors, from age to dehydration to cardiovascular disease, elevate the chances of injury or death. If you are vulnerable, stay in a cool indoor place during the day when temperatures are high, and recover as much as possible at night, especially if temperatures stay high."

Donna and I co-created a GoFundMe campaign to expand our fundraising reach, which raised enough funds to keep her safe for 3 weeks. 36 donors contributed to keeping Amy safe! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

We had to regroup to set the campaign on tighter financial ground with specific goals. This is our new plan.

-> Keep Amy safe from the heat, and from sleeping outdoors.

-> Keep working a short, medium, and long term plan - all while constantly checking in with case management on progress in shelter or housing.

If we do not have enough funding for a hotel room, her friends will have no choice but to take her to her preferred sleeping spots outside once she checks out of her hotel room.

As Amy's friends we just cannot imagine Amy's silent fears of what is going to happen to her.  We promise her we are there for her for as long as it takes.  Policy makers see Amy as just a number among the other 2,200 + homeless people in Austin.  We see Amy!  Amy is a positive member of society and she's our loving, witty, feisty, ailing friend.

Please consider giving what you can towards getting Amy through this bureaucratic hell in dignity and safety.

**The Council was designed to give feedback to city government on policies, contracts, and other efforts that affected people living on the streets. The case study was written up as a case study by the Centre for Public Impact , in the local Austin Monitor, in Huffington Post , and even the US Department of Justice as part of a larger case study on innovation in justice innovation, and featured in webinars with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. But all of the attention, all of the research, advocacy, engagement, and consulting still results in Amy getting evicted, and struggling to get into shelter, much less housed.