Nearly 20 years ago, Tim Vickers was living out his dream of becoming a professional mixed martial arts fighter. He spent four years fighting as an amateur before turning pro.
That all came to a halt in January 2011, when Vickers suffered a head injury that ended his MMA career. He turned to music, helping a friend's band at shows while living with his grandmother.
“Securing my longevity was not in my mind,” Vickers said. “I would rather chase the dream or do whatever I was doing because I had my grandma’s house to go back to.”
But then his grandmother died, and Vickers' family decided to sell the home she owned in Barton Hills. Suddenly, he found himself with no place to go. Vickers retreated to living in his van, working odd jobs to eat.
“When you’re living in your van, and you are trying to present yourself a certain way, it becomes difficult,” Vickers said. “It takes a lot of effort to show up somewhere professional.”
Vickers had been living in his van for almost two years when, out of the blue, he got an email from an Austin nonprofit called the Other Ones Foundation offering him a path toward employment and a more comfortable place to sleep.
“I saw this as a way out of homelessness,” he said. “Because for me personally, that was a very traumatizing couple of years of my life.”
Across the Austin area, there are more than 3,800 people without shelter, according to data from the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition. City leaders are trying to replicate the success of programs like the Other Ones Foundation to help people like Vickers get back on their feet.
Regaining stability
Elizabeth Baker, executive director of the Other Ones Foundation, said employment is a necessary part of a person’s journey out of homelessness. The nonprofit runs the Camp Esperanza shelter in Southeast Austin, where people have access to a tiny home and a variety of support services, including workforce development.
“What we found was that in order for folks to truly carve a pathway out of homelessness through workforce development services, they need the full package,” Baker said. “They need a safe place to stay at night. They need the ability to charge their phones so that they wake up on time and arrive at work on time.”
The nonprofit's education and job training programs range from helping people get a GED to preparing them for work in skilled trades like welding and HVAC.
Carlos Contreras helps lead the GED prep classes. Through a partnership with the nonprofit Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, Camp Esperanza residents can take classes on site, including in math and language arts.
In his years of teaching, Contreras has found that sometimes, education comes last. Students are often more worried about where they are going to sleep or what they are going to eat. So in addition to calculators and textbooks, students in his class are usually welcomed with food, including sandwiches and chips.
“I try to have something for them here because it's one less thing for them to worry about,” Contreras said. “On top of that, I feel like it takes some of the intimidation factor away. Like, if you can eat during class, you’re not really just learning math. You're sharing a meal and learning math.”
Shawn Means, one of Contreras’ students, said it's one of the things he loves most about the classes. Means recently got an HVAC certification and is working on earning a GED.
“For me, it's one day at a time,” Means said. “But as far as the future, I’d like to get into college again.”
More than 60% of people staying at Camp Esperanza are engaged in some kind of workforce development, according to the Other Ones Foundation. Help from the city of Austin will be important in expanding those efforts.
Austin assists
In August, the Austin City Council approved a resolution that asks the city manager to look at how the city can pay for more programs that help people experiencing homelessness find work.
Mayor Kirk Watson, who authored the resolution, said giving people a place to sleep and a way to get back on their feet is essential.
“Even as we are increasing shelter beds, even as we’re increasing permanent supportive housing, we’re expanding classes and increasing the ability for people to get where they need to go,” Watson said.
Watson said programs like these do more than provide shelter and job training. They instill hope.
“Hope is what gets us out of bed in the morning,” he said. “If we can give that hope, if we can create those motivations and then have access to success, then all that does is make this a more successful city.”
Watson hopes Austin voters will agree as they prepare to vote on a property tax rate increase this November, which would help fund homeless support services. The city manager is looking at additional funding opportunities. Those recommendations are expected in a few weeks.
