Poverty and Homelessness Myths

It is a common myth to believe that Poverty or Homelessness only effects 'other' people, you know, the mentally ill, drug addicts, lazy bums or ex-convicts that no one will hire. This makes it easy to not identify with a rising population of people who many were just like you, but had some bad luck. Yes, bad things do happen to good people too.

You only have to think back to November 2018, when the Nation witnessed all the residents of Paradise, California lose their homes to a wildfire. And here closer to home, at least 55,000 Texas residents are still displaced from of Hurricane Harvey which happened in 2017.

15% of all American families in homes struggle each year to provide coats for their families because it's a budget 'extra' out of reach. In other words, one in five children lives in poverty.

In fact, recent studies suggest that the average American is serving paycheck to paycheck and is only one tragic event from going under not able to put money into savings. Just this week the United Way released a new report stating 42% of Austin residents are finding it hard to pay their bills. What could that unfortunate event be for you? a car accident, a six week flu that forces you to lose work, made redundant from the start-up you moved to Austin for because it ran out money before it took off?

Winters are getting longer and colder. Even a 2-degree drop in body temperature results in reduced heart rate, loss of coordination, and confusion. And life threatening Hypothermia can set in when temperatures are between 32F and 50F.

Austinites - Do you have coats in your closet you no longer wear? Help our One Warm Coat drive which starts tomorrow, January 28th through February 18th. Drop-off your gently worn coat, hat, scarf or pair of gloves to 1 of the 3 collection locations: Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center, South Austin Recreation Center or Turner-Roberts Recreation Center. Learn more here: http://www.zaragozaparkneighborhoodassn.org/coat-drive.html