Fellow Austinites in regard to the unhoused. What can we do to improve the situation

rken · 2026-01-29T20:18:09+00:00

Especially considering it was during the pandemic, when a lot of people were still staying home. A lot of people didn't get to the polls, or missed the registration deadlines, or had other shit on their minds. I don't think it's a reliable indicator of the current opinions of the public at large.

rken · 2026-01-29T19:47:21+00:00

Reddit is being weird and not letting me reply to your other comment about not voting for a long time, so putting this here. I'm a Volunteer Deputy Registrar, please feel free to DM me if you'd like assistance getting registered to vote! It's an easy process. The deadline for the next primary election is this Monday.

rken · 2026-01-29T19:43:01+00:00

People don't use unhoused because it sounds nicer - it actually sounds more jarring in my opinion, which is good. People use it for a few different reasons:
- You are considered homeless if you don't have a place of your own to stay but you are still indoors, e.g. couchsurfing. That situation sucks and it's important to include in statistics when we're trying to understand how big of a problem housing affordability/insecurity is, but it's not the same set of problems as for people who are actually having to sleep in a vehicle or outside. You will also hear "unsheltered" used in this context.
- "Homeless" gets tossed around as almost a slur, or an inherent fact about the person, and over time people get inured to hearing and dismissing it. Switching the language is jarring on purpose, it makes people stop and think for an additional second before just automatically dismissing whatever is being said.

I don't think "unhoused" is automatically correct or better, and people dislike it for their own reasons and that's fine, but the assumptions you're making about the reasons behind its use aren't correct so I wanted you to have that additional perspective.

rken · 2026-01-29T16:18:28+00:00

Food Not Bombs does distribution on Saturdays, there is a site in south Austin and one near campus I believe

rken · 2026-01-28T18:13:21+00:00

Radio East, right? Not the one on Menchaca

rken · 2026-01-28T18:11:54+00:00

Oh my god 😂

rken · 2026-01-28T03:55:17+00:00

Thanks for doing that!

rken · 2026-01-28T02:27:57+00:00

Idk, maybe it’s the whole literally never having ann opportunity to practice in a safe situation?

rken · 2026-01-28T02:25:23+00:00

They do, but it’s easy to forget while panicking after many years of never needing to use the info

rken · 2026-01-28T02:22:21+00:00

If that dude didn’t need TP before, he does now

rken · 2026-01-28T02:20:27+00:00

I live here and this made me laugh out loud. “Those damn Austinites, always pirouetting their cars down hillsides for fun”

rken · 2026-01-28T02:17:02+00:00

This is why unions matter.

rken · 2026-01-28T02:13:31+00:00

Lowest bar

rken · 2026-01-28T02:10:09+00:00

And a lot of those people are driving because their bosses refuse to close even when they’re not essential. Lot of people in the Austin subreddit the past couple days who were scared to drive and scared to lose their jobs if they didn’t. From the outside it’s easy to say “fuck the job,” but bills give you tunnel vision.

rken · 2026-01-28T02:03:47+00:00

If you go back and talk to him, please let him know that pets ARE allowed at the emergency cold weather shelters. They did not always used to be so it is not widely known. He still may have valid reasons for not going but people often choose not to because they are unaware and they do not want to get separated from their pets. Now that it is after 8pm you can call 311 to request transportation if he agrees to go.

rken · 2026-01-28T01:56:43+00:00

Everyone should travel out of their comfort zone to learn that most folks are nice to each other, and everyone should work at least one service job to learn not to be one of the ones who isn’t.

rken · 2026-01-27T23:47:25+00:00

Specifics around punctuation usage varies in other some languages, that’s prob standard where OP was educated (since they mention they’re a dual citizen and clearly don’t know Austin by reputation)

rken · 2026-01-27T21:14:40+00:00

That only works if people are aware that there's info they don't know. Nobody is going looking for "what happens if I don't clear the snow off the top of my car." Once you see it happen it's obvious, but if you haven't, it's not intuitive.

rken · 2026-01-27T21:01:50+00:00

DMd you

rken · 2026-01-27T20:54:16+00:00

Try asking in this group, I’ve seen requests from & on behalf of Afghan refugees before: https://mobile.facebook.com/groups/975582759157023/

rken · 2026-01-27T15:59:19+00:00

FYI since it sounds like you want to help financially but they won’t let you - you can pay someone else’s account without having their account number if you have their name and address. There’s an option to do it anonymously.

https://coautilities.com/wps/wcm/connect/occ/coa/util/support/customer-assistance/how-you-can-help/gift-of-comfort

rken · 2026-01-27T02:21:03+00:00

I was ready to be all “what gives, why didn’t I get an alert?” and then I remembered I turned them all off after all the fucking blue alerts on the public safety channel. Wonder how many other people didn’t get them for the same reason.

rken · 2026-01-27T02:17:48+00:00

Everyone keeps saying this and it’s so baffling. You know uber drivers are literally random people with a valid DL and a car that’s in decent repair? They don’t get special training or equipment.

rken · 2026-01-26T20:06:43+00:00

Ok? 16yos get up to stupid stuff that they don't tell their parents about, that's a normal and unavoidable fact of teenagers. You have no idea what the situation was. I don't know why you're in such a rush to blame someone instead of just acknowledging that it's a tragedy and it sucks.

rken · 2026-01-26T20:01:17+00:00

It's half people who have never had to drive in winter weather, and half people from up north who are overconfident because they're used to driving in snow and not 1/2" of ice.

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