How Maximizing Hope's laundry events play key role in ending the homelessness cycle in Austin

Nearly everything Benton Buratti owned was piled into a shopping cart, and all of it needed to be washed. Blankets. Clothes. Everything was musty from the recent rains.

“That’s one of the biggest things about staying outside is staying clean,” said Buratti, who had pushed his rolling heap of washables a mile from his campsite to the Clean Laundry laundromat on West Parmer Lane.

For the past nine months, for two hours every Monday, the nonprofit Maximizing Hope has made this North Austin laundromat a portal to help those experiencing homelessness. Which made this past Monday — the last free laundry day for the next few months — a bittersweet occasion.

“Laundry really is the carrot for them to come,” said Tonya Coy, founder of Maximizing Hope, which began in 2020 with outreach efforts to encampments under highway overpasses, then shifted to laundromat-based events in 2021 as the camping ban pushed those without housing deep into the woods.

Maximizing Hope provides the quarters for the washers and dryers and the detergent pods for each load. But really these events create a space for caseworkers to connect with those who need help, to find out what they need to get back into housing.

Like Buratti, many need help getting replacement birth certificates or ID cards, precious documents often lost to theft or to the city-led clearing of encampments. Others need a coordinated assessment, the questionnaire that can help connect people with housing.

Or they need to connect with a doctor. Apply for Social Security or disability benefits. Get food stamps.

“We do laundry,” Coy told me, “but laundry is not what we do.”

That's why the laundry events are going on hiatus for a few months. The break provides time for the three caseworkers with Maximizing Hope — all volunteers — to focus on resolving the needs of their existing clients, moving them closer to housing, so they can create space to help new people.

They’ve gone through this cycle a few times: laundry events for nine months, break for three months. Rinse and repeat.

“Otherwise it’s overwhelming,” Coy said, noting that replacing one woman’s birth certificate from Michigan is taking weeks of effort, a sign of how labor-intensive this work is. “We have to hyperfocus at some point.”

Laundry events serve vital need

Paul Steele stacked his freshly washed clothes and towels into a canvas laundry bag. He is one of the 114 people whom Maximizing Hope has connected to housing over the past few years. He said the nonprofit also helped him get food stamps, reading glasses and donated furniture for the apartment he landed eight months ago.

He appreciates the larger mission. But laundry is needed, too.

“When you’re homeless, you don’t want to do laundry,” said Steele, who first met Coy when she visited his U.S. 183 encampment with Gatorade and snacks. “If you’ve got money, you want to get food. When and if you do laundry, the next day it rains, and everything gets moldy and it's a waste.”

Maximizing Hope offers one of the few laundry options geared toward those who are homeless. Others rely on the nonprofit Mission Accomplished, which picks up laundry at designated sites, then cleans, folds and returns the items to their owners. Some churches have a washer and dryer available at certain times.

For five years, the nonprofit Lighter Loads ATX provided mobile laundry and shower services in Austin, before its founders retired last fall and moved to South Carolina. (The organization donated its equipment to Taylor Center for Assistance & Navigation in Williamson County.) Meanwhile, South Austin's Solid Ground Ministry recently paused its monthly block party events, which included laundry and showers, while it looks for a new home with the goal of providing weekly services.

John Woodley made good use of the free laundry days with Maximizing Hope. The large machines at the laundromat can handle his sleeping bag, blankets and other bulky winter loads.

“In the wintertime, my clothing doubles,” Woodley told me. “I’m wearing twice as many pants, twice as many shirts, hats, gloves. Some people double up their socks.”

Woodley expects he’ll start spending $10 to $15 a week on laundry while Maximizing Hope's laundry events are on hiatus. But Coy told me the nonprofit will meet clients’ needs, including laundry, on an individual basis.

Helpers and hope gather around those in need

One of the most remarkable things about Maximizing Hope’s laundry events is the small village of helpers who sprung up around them.

Quentin Jackson from the American G.I. Forum provided job counseling services on a folding table by the front row of washers, as the air filled with the thrumming of machines and the bright aroma of fabric softener.

Volunteers with Highpoint Fellowship’s Hearts for the Homeless handed out bus passes and bags of socks and toiletries. Justin Bell from Ruthie B’s Eatery offered foil-wrapped hot dogs and chicken and rice burritos from a table next to the wall of dryers.

And just outside, William Kerby of Kerby’s Clothing Ministry stacked a table with free shirts and pants for the taking.

“My only rule is to respect your neighbor,” Kerby said.

Meaning: Leave some things for others.

The waiting list for housing in Austin can be years long. The path can feel discouraging. “There’s no straight line to anything, and it’s hard,” Coy said.

Yes, laundry gets people in the door, a pragmatic offering on a difficult journey. But it also wraps people in warmth, cleanliness and dignity. It sends a message: A nonprofit that tends to the clothes on your body cares about improving the rest of your surroundings.

CarrieAnn Smith arrived last Monday with a wagon packed with blankets and left with an appointment to see a caseworker.

“It’s not easy to ask for help,” said Smith, whose path to homelessness was paved with trauma and loss, something she revisits each time she explains her need for aid. Elsewhere she has felt judged, she said.

But not at Clean Laundry, where help appeared at every table, and the clothing and the people could all get a fresh start.

Grumet is the Statesman’s Metro columnist. Her column, ATX in Context, contains her opinions. Share yours via email at bgrumet@statesman.com or via Twitter at @bgrumet. Find her previous work at statesman.com/news/columns.

Learn moreMaximizing Hope offers personal case management services for those experiencing homelessness, including help applying for benefits, ID and housing. The nonprofit also provides secure document storage and mail service. For more information and to find out how to help, visit maximizinghope.org.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Laundry events play key role in ending the homelessness cycle in Austin