Homeless in Central Texas : An FAQ

So this weekend I got a chance to be homeless for 48 hours and be guided around by my street shepard Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. I know I have a ton of nerds and geeks that read this blog so I thought I would throw up a Homeless/Street Retreat FAQ since so many of you have questions.

1) Where do you live? “Live” is a interesting word for the working poor and homeless. Mostly we walked. From downtown Austin to Threadgills to listen to music over the fence. From 5th street we caught a bus to Sunken Gardens and Barton Springs. The best part of that? You can’t tell the homeless from the hippies at Barton Springs! You live where you are. Whether that’s in an alley behind Fox7 or sleeping in a parking lot behind the old county courthouse. At night we slept under the stars on a parking lot.

2) Where do you eat? If you have your wits about you, you can always find a meal here in Austin. The problem is that all the meals are provided by churches and non profits. Where the heck is the city of Austin or the State of Texas in this? Big time Fail on that. These are people not animals. The trick is to know where to be and when. Such and such church at 8:30am breakfast and 5:30pm at Woolridge park for Mobile Loaves and Fishes trucks, etc. We picked this up by talking to other homeless people on the streets. Also if you go outside Veggie Heaven and hold one finger up they will bring you a meal. I love them even more now.

3) Where do you get water or use the bathroom? This was the “easy” part for us. Second floor of Whole Foods. Cold water and ice. Also the Public Library, HEB by the bathrooms, most buildings at UT. Same goes for Bathrooms. Want to take a shower? Find a river or use the sink in a bathroom.

4) What do you own? Homeless people and the working poor have some interesting stuff. Cell Phones. Ipods. Old broken laptops. Shoes. Shirts. Shopping Carts. Cardboard to sleep on (like I did). Watches. It all depends. That like asking what I own versus what the readers of this blog own. It all depends. The thing that brings them together is that they are poor and don’t have houses/apts of their own.

5) How do you get money? You panhandle, do odd jobs, hang with the day workers. Asking complete strangers for money was not hard for me. I am a trained actor. I simply put myself into a character and had at it. BUT the rejection was hard. The way people look at you, treat you, simply loathe you for asking was something I have never experienced. It made me sick to my stomach to be treated that way. DON’T EVER IGNORE ANOTHER HOMELESS BROTHER AND SISTER AGAIN. If you are in your car give them a pair of socks. Or that crappy old high tech/startup.com AMD/DELL shirt you got for free. Don’t have money? Don’t want to give them money? Tell them that. Just don’t ignore another human being.

6) Were they nice to you? The simple answer is yes. They were very inclusive and friendly. We talked to a ton of people who had been their from a year to a week. People who weren’t all there to people who choose to live life like this. It was an amazing eye opening experience.

7) How can I help? STAY TUNED. In the meantime check out this sustainable plan for getting the Homeless lifted off the streets and into a better life. It’s worth your time. Habitat on Wheels.

I'm Homeless : Mobile Loaves and Fishes Video

What can I say? If you are a human being yyou need to do this once in your life. More posts coming on this eye opening experience with our brothers and sisters on the street soon, including my own video takes. Go ahead and watch this video from our hosts below when you can.

Social Media for Social Good : Latinitas Tweet-Up

Remember Social Media for Social Good here in Austin, TX? We are working on the next Tweetup Blood Drive but in the meantime come help a great local Non Profit see the Social Media good.

Come join us at the Latinitas Tweet-Up and Mini Auction June 11th at Mercury Mambo, learn more about Latinitas, and how you can help. We will also be auctioning works from professional photographers and local artists. The photos featured at the event showcase the many facets of Latino culture from religion to architecture to family life, in both literal and abstract fashion.  Proceeds from the auction will benefit Latinitas outreach programs. We will have light appetizers, Bacardi Mojitos, and beer.

-Doors open at 5pm
-Latinitas Presentation at 6pm
-Silent Auction closes at 6:45
-Drinks run out at 7pm (need we say more?)

See you there, Amigos!

P.S I heard something about an open bar….Contact @sameder for details.

City of Austin Revolution

I was lucky enough and honored to get invited to a special City of Austin meeting about the city’s Web Site.  You see we are having some issues with it.  In fact this was not your average City committee meeting with the council facing the usual number of crackpots, deadlocking over issues and it airing on Channel 6. What made me happy as well as the number of non profit folks in the room. Who better to ask about managing tech on a budget?

This was a SWAT team style surgical strike at where the Web Site needs to go in the next year. As one of the city employees said in the meeting “This is not a re-design. This is a re-imagining of what a city should give it’s citizens”.

I will take it a step further and say it’s a Revolution. It’s time to take one of the leading tech and art cities in the nation and make her shine. Here is a quick summary of my favorite ideas from the meeting.

1) Ask the Youth. Get the AISD involved. Who will be using the City’s Web Site 5 years from now? They will be. Let’s get their thoughts.

2) Let’s build first and ask questions soon. Let’s go get a sandbox mockup of what people want. Whether it’s in Drupal or Powerpoint or in a .PSD file. That way when the RFP (request for project) goes out to Web Dev firms we can tell them “Build This” or “Make this come alive”.

3) Let’s crowd source this monster. Just like the videos on SharingHope.tv. Let’s give the people a voice. Go check out what one of my friend’s is doing with OpenAustin. OpenAustin is a community-based effort to crowd source the requirements and development for the new City of Austin web site using local software developers, marketing experts, and graphic designers that have been displaced from their jobs due to the current economic downturn. In my opinon this will produce a superior Web site for the citizens of Austin at a fraction of the cost of the city’s lowest bid.

What do you think?