AUSTIN, Texas — This holiday season, Urban Alchemy brought a little extra Christmas cheer to the unhoused population in downtown Austin with their first ever Christmas event.
“It’s kind of hard when you’re going through a heavy transition,” said Cherish Hart, a business operations specialist with Urban Alchemy. “But to know that, hey I can come here and at least feel that community, that camaraderie and for just a moment, I can forget about it.”
At the “oasis,” an old parking lot between the Eighth Street Shelter and the ARCH downtown, Urban Alchemy handed out coats, gifts and a warm meal to people experiencing homelessness. Every day, Urban Alchemy hands out coffee and water at the oasis, and provides showers from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Urban Alchemy started in 2018 in San Francisco, bringing transitional housing, street cleaning and mobile bathrooms to people experiencing homelessness in the city. Over the last several years, they’ve expanded to six other cities, including Austin in 2021.
Kevin Lee with Urban Alchemy was one of the first to come to Austin with the outreach team to assess the local needs. Since being here, Lee said they’ve successfully helped the unhoused population get into more permanent housing and take life skills classes.
But Lee said what makes their organization most successful, is the way their staff is able to connect with the people they serve.
“We come in and we meet you right where you’re at, like I’ve been knowing you all your life,” Lee said.
That’s because 95% of their staff have either been incarcerated or experienced homelessness themselves.
“That in itself helps to you know, shorten the gap,” Lee said. “Where they can understand you, and you can understand them.”
Their organization focuses on communication and de-escalation tactics, which Lee said has been more successful than law enforcement who may not understand the complexities of what it’s like to be unhoused going in.
“It’s a lot easier because now the guest is communicating with this instead of being negative and violent behavior,” Lee said.
Lee said they also have great communication with these people, so they are able to ask them what resources would be most useful, instead of just assuming what the people need.
“They let us know what they need and then we provide them with that service,” Lee said.
Urban Alchemy’s Christmas event was put on in coordination with the Sow Family Foundation, Puma, We Can Now and Sysco.
The organization is always looking for more volunteers. Anyone interested in volunteering can fill out an application on Urban Alchemy’s website.