The Esperanza Community in East Austin now features 100 shelter cabins and is expanding with hundreds more. (Ben Thompson/Community Impact)
The Esperanza Community, the transitional shelter complex operated by The Other Ones Foundation, or TOOF, marked its ongoing expansion in East Austin backed by city, county, state and private funds.
The overview
The shelter community on state property off US 183 has expanded under a partnership with Texas officials that started as part of a local homeless encampment clearing effort. This fall, leaders celebrated the addition of dozens of new shelter cabins and a community center.
The state-owned land first functioned as a sanctioned encampment area full of temporary structures without shared amenities. In the years since, the site has developed with hundreds of permanent shelter units, shared community spaces like restroom and kitchen areas, job training opportunities and a range of supportive services.
TOOF is now planning to grow the project's footprint with hundreds more shelter cabins on adjacent state property. As those plans move ahead, local officials joined TOOF leadership Sept. 30 to celebrate the recent shelter additions and the opening of the Glimmer Austin Community Center.
“Today, this is about expansion of opportunity and the expansion of access to everybody as we start to open the front doors of The Other Ones Foundation a little bit wider, make it a little bit more accessible for everybody," TOOF board chair Chris Turnley said. "Accessible doesn’t mean easy, but accessible means available, and that we are more available today and we’re going to continue to invest in more availability with these 100 homes, with this new community center, with the job training center that’s behind.”
The details
Since construction began in 2022, 200 individual cabins have been built across Esperanza's four existing communities at 780 S. US 183. About 750 people have been rehoused after time at the community, according to TOOF, including about 200 in the past year.
The latest shelter spaces were supported by a $1 million city allocation from 2024, according to Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations. The Texas Department of Transportation also donated infrastructure support for roadways, utilities and fencing around the property, as well as labor and materials across Esperanza, according to the department.
A further 325 cabins and shelter units, community spaces, infrastructure and service additions are planned at the Esperanza II project next door that's being supported with nearly $50 million in state housing funds and more than $15 million from Austin, adding to other city funding for shelter operations including TOOF's. Travis County has also directed $3.5 million to Esperanza in recent years, County Judge Andy Brown said.
“It’s a huge accomplishment," Austin Mayor Pro Tem Chito Vela said of TOOF's development. "The city has been there, we will continue to be there. We’ve given money toward these 100 units, we’re giving money toward the continued operations. This is a successful housing program that we’re all extremely proud of.”
TxDOT has also credited TOOF for its "significant" turnaround of the former encampment site and the collaborations behind its continued success.
"Esperanza has evolved from a state-initiated response to unsheltered homelessness into a model built on defined roles: TxDOT provides the land, TOOF operates the campus, and local and state partners provide policy and funding alignment," TxDOT Austin District Engineer Tucker Ferguson wrote in a letter to local officials earlier this year.
Local officials and leaders with The Other Ones Foundation and local nonprofits held a ribbon-cutting for the Esperanza Community's expansion including a new community center Sept. 30.Ben Thompson/Community Impact
In addition to the transitional housing units, Esperanza features onsite workforce development and vocational skills training in partnership with entities like Austin Community College and Workforce Solutions Capital Area. The community center supported by nonprofit Glimmer Austin is meant to serve as a front door for Esperanza, which Glimmer founder Philip Berber noted as a "vibrant" new piece of the community.
“This building, these structures are not just a success of construction. It opens up doors to increasing dignity, to finding a place where people can belong and to carving pathways out of homelessness," TOOF Executive Director Elizabeth Baker said.
