By: Jaxie Pidgeon
With homelessness in Austin on the rise, some city leaders, nonprofit organizations and Austinites are taking action to promote the stories of those experiencing homelessness.
Commissioners Alicia Weigel, Nathan White and Kristian Caballero spoke about the Humanizing Homelessness Photography Campaign at the Oct. 28 Austin Human Rights Commission meeting.
“We spoke with (advocacy group) Grassroots Leadership, they came and spoke to our commission, and they let us know about some hate crimes toward homeless people, and a lot of vitriol aimed at them, particularly online,” White said. “Then some people in the commission chose to speak to the council on that issue at a couple of the open meetings.”
Weigel partnered with her photographer friend, Juliana Boswell, and together they created the campaign idea.
“Homelessness has really blown up as a controversial issue in this city,” Weigel said. The campaign will be “an effort to try to help humanize homelessness and share their stories.”
The Austin City Council recently approved city homelessness camping restrictions that went into effect on Oct. 28. The council reinstated a ban on camping on all city sidewalks, but sitting and lying down won’t be banned unless the sidewalk is 15 feet from an operating business.
There are about 2,300 people experiencing homelessness in Travis County on a single day, a 5% increase from 2018, according to the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition’s annual census.
At the commission meeting, Weigel said she wanted to give city leaders a general idea of what the campaign may look like.
“The idea is to have real portraits of people that make them feel like they are getting to share themselves with dignity, and something that they would like the world to know,” Weigel said.
The campaign hopes to mirror its format after the photo blog Humans of New York. The blog features portraits of New Yorkers with a short piece about their lives.
“We are looking to do something similar,” Weigel said. “We would be looking to do it in a way that is not exploitative, that is very much consensual in terms of folks that would like to share their story.”
Wiegel said that she wanted to connect with campaigns and organizations that are already working with the homeless.
“I was planning on integrating with preexisting canvassing efforts because it should be done in conjunction with offering help and resources,” Weigel said.
Weigel and Boswell created a hashtag for the campaign in an effort to change the public’s perception of those experiencing homelessness.
“The idea would be surrounding a hashtag, which instead of it being #KeepAustinWeird, it would be #KeepAustinHuman,” Weigel said. “It would basically involve enhancing community engagement and awareness to the sociopolitical developments happening in Austin around homelessness, eliminating the stigma around the homeless and disenfranchised populations in Austin by sharing photographs and including brief stories.”
White said that he had an experience where he was “briefly and very temporarily” homeless.
“It was only through the kindness of others that I am able to be here now,” White said. “A lot of the things that I try to do is just immediately work on the issues that have personally affected me or affected the ones that I love due to oppressive forces.”
White said that he thinks the campaign will give Austinites a better understanding of the experiences that people are having on the streets.
“If the broader public doesn’t see them as equal humans, then the rest of the political will to make changes just doesn’t quite come together,” White said. “Very often they are just living in a bubble where it is not a part of their lived experience, so they find it easier to just either ignore it, turn a blind eye or be outright against it.”
Weigel said she and Boswell would look for opportunities to team with other groups that aid the homeless, and together they are considering how to spread the word about the campaign through social media.
Julie Burch is the communications manager for the nonprofit group Caritas of Austin. She is not affiliated with the proposed campaign but said Caritas of Austin has a similar mission.
“When we can humanize our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness by telling their stories, it’s much more difficult to dismiss or ignore a person or a group of people,” Burch said. “By showing that they are people, like you and me, others are more compassionate, and without that compassion, we cannot end this unnecessary suffering.”
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