Former Convict Helps Homeless in Austin with Job Training, Housing

The barbecue smoke is already rising at 7 a.m. on a hot day outside a former gas station in East Austin. Sherman Haywood is cooking up chicken, brisket and sausage for anyone in the neighborhood who needs to stop by for breakfast or lunch.

A few months ago, Haywood, 55, was living in his car at the corner of 12th Street and Springdale Road after he was laid off from a job. Now he's working for the Hungry Hill Foundation, a nonprofit that provides food for people who are homeless or formerly incarcerated, as well as connecting them to jobs, housing and medical assistance.

Chase Wright, 35, started the foundation in 2022 after he noticed about 120 people living in tents in parks or on the streets in the neighborhood.

"I grew up east of Springdale Road and 12th Street in an area they called 'Hungry Hill,'" he said. African-American women named it "Hungry Hill" in the 1940's and 1950's because they were widowed or their husbands were away fighting wars, Wright said. They had to provide their own resources to not go hungry, he said. His grandmother also lived there.

"I used to watch my grandmother clothe and feed people off the back of her porch," Wright said. The foundation's resource center at 1189 Springdale Road is a former African-American-owned Phillips 66 gas station.

The Hungry Hill Foundation also has outreach teams that drive to homeless spots in eight ZIP codes in the city to hand out food and water and to refer people to other sources of assistance. The areas are all east of downtown or in North or Northeast Austin.

One outreach team recently stopped on a hot day to give sandwiches to two homeless men under an overpass at U.S. 183 and East Anderson Lane. The first man yelled at them but then agreed to get in the van and go back to the resource center to get a card qualifying him for medical assistance. Another man refused to go to the resource center with team members but they took down some information to put him in their system.

The center was hosting an event that day, sponsored by Central Health's Bridge Clinic, where participants could apply for medical assistance and also get a health checkup from a physician's assistant.

From living on streets to uplifter

Wright has experienced homelessness himself. After graduating from LBJ High School, he said he played football for a year at Blinn College before dropping out and later taking some classes at Texas A&M University. He later had a job as a collections agent for a bank before he came back to Austin, getting involved in drugs and living on the streets, he said. After serving time in prison for drug possession, Wright said he turned his life around by starting a successful moving company.

The money to start the foundation, he said, came from an anonymous donor who has given $3.8 million over three years.

The donor found out that Wright had spoken at an Austin City Council meeting about homeless issues and approached him for help in 2022, Wright said. He said he and Kermit Hyder, who is now the foundation's operations director, went to the donor's neighborhood near Interstate 35 and 38th Street and started feeding homeless people and getting them involved in community cleanups. The donor was impressed and offered him the money to start the Hungry Hill foundation, Wright said.

The nonprofit has used the money to provide transitional housing to 300 people over three years and helped clothe, feed and find jobs for 1,000 recipients who were homeless or previously incarcerated, he said. The food is donated from local restaurants and other nonprofits, including Keep Austin Fed.

"When we met Chase and the Hungry Hill Foundation in 2022, it was clear they were reaching individuals and families in East Austin that we hadn’t yet connected with," said Lisa Barden, the executive director of Keep Austin Fed. "We believe trusted, community-based organizations are the most effective way to reach people needing assistance. Our collaboration with Hungry Hill has been a win-win. By providing them with regular food donations, we’ve helped free up their resources so they can focus on their core mission of supporting unhoused residents with holistic re-entry services."

Rae Coker, a single mother with two children, said she was having a hard time when employees of the Hungry Hill Foundation gave her a ride to get clothes and shoes for her kids at the resource center.

“They are real welcoming and sweet people who make you feel good,” Coker said. “A lot of times when you are going through stuff like this, it’s kind of embarrassing. They don’t make you feel ‘less than’ other people.” She said the foundation’s staff also made her children feel good by allowing them to help pass out food at the resource center.

Wright said the foundation is struggling because it has already spent the money from its anonymous donor and is looking for other sources of funding. It recently received a contract from the city of Austin to clean up Bartholomew Park in East Austin in July, Wright said. He said it has been difficult to find help because sources such as the U.S. Department of Justice cut funding for some training activities the foundation offered, including helping to combat street violence.

How it works

The foundation has a four-tier program that offers homeless or formerly incarcerated people jobs. It pays people $20.80 an hour to pick up trash in community parks and neighborhoods in the first tier, said Wright. Eighty hours of work is required to graduate from the first tier.

During the second tier, participants not only pick up trash but work at other jobs requiring teamwork, including a car wash at the foundation's resource center.

"We have them working under pressure and we also address substance abuse and mental health issues," said Wright. Eighty hours of work is required to graduate from the second tier.

Participants in the third tier qualify for paid, temporary jobs that contractors offer such as construction cleanup. Some employers looking for laborers also teach participants skills, such as how to operate drills and chainsaws, Wright said. He said many people the foundation helps already are skilled working in construction, plumbing, electricity and carpentry.

Neighborhood resident Darian Washington said she got participants in the foundation's program to help her with her business Oatmeal and Company when it started. "They helped me double my production," she said.

When an individual enters the foundation's fourth tier they find work on their own, Wright said.

Roscoe Stephens Jr. said he was living on the streets before working his way through the foundation's tiers in 2022. That helped him land a job with the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps cutting trees and removing invasive species.

The foundation rents six homes for transitional housing that it can provide to 30 homeless people for a six-month period, said Wright. The owner of four of those homes, real estate developer Anmol Mehra, said he is impressed with the work that Wright is doing.

"If you met him you would think this is an incredibly passionate guy and very articulate," said Mehra, who owns the Aus/Bos Social Housing company. Mehra said he believes in giving people a second chance.

"It's a human right for people to have housing and it's something I can do on that front," he said. "The world needs more compassion and empathy and less shaming and asking questions."

He said all of the homes he rents to Hungry Hill are in East Austin but he wouldn't say exactly where they are.

One of the people who lives in the transitional housing, Walter Scott, said he was homeless before he worked through the programs at Hungry Hill and was given a place to stay. Now he finds jobs of his own in construction. It was hard to find jobs before having housing because he could not take care of his hygiene, Scott said.

"With transitional housing, I can clean up and find a job," he said.

Haywood, a graduate of McCallum High School who went to culinary school at Austin Community College, said he loves his job barbecuing for people who stop by Hungry Hill for breakfast or lunch.

"I like giving back," said Haywood. "I feel I have been blessed."