What is TOOF?
The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF) is an Austin-based nonprofit working to end homelessness through low-barrier shelter, workforce development, and pathways to housing. At the Esperanza Community and beyond, TOOF provides safe, dignified shelter alongside opportunities for income, skills training, and case management—empowering individuals to stabilize and move forward. By combining immediate support with long-term solutions, TOOF helps people rebuild their lives while strengthening the broader community.
Join us in building a community where our clients, staff, and supporters find common ground and grow together.
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Looking for an easy way to help? Shop from TOOF’s Amazon Wishlist to provide essential items for those experiencing homelessness. Every purchase directly supports our mission and makes an immediate impact.
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Esperanza Community Named Most Influential Project by ULI Austin
The 2026 Impact Award recognizes a community built around dignity, belonging, and pathways out of homelessness.
Esperanza Community has been named Most Influential Project at ULI Austin’s 2026 Impact Awards. For The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF), the recognition is an opportunity to celebrate everyone helping build a place where our neighbors experiencing homelessness can find shelter, support, and the stability to move forward.
ULI Austin’s annual Impact Awards recognize people and projects shaping the Greater Austin region. The Most Influential Project category honors developments whose positive effects reach beyond the project itself, strengthening surrounding communities and leaving a lasting impact on the places we build.
At Esperanza, that work begins with a simple belief: everyone deserves a place to belong.
A safe place to sleep creates room to begin thinking about what comes next. Access to care, meaningful work, and people who offer consistent support can help turn that possibility into a path forward. Esperanza brings these elements together in a community where residents can address immediate needs while working toward their own goals.
Operated by TOOF, Esperanza is a low-barrier emergency shelter offering individual shelter units alongside personalized case management, housing navigation, wellness services, and opportunities for work and vocational development. Residents work alongside staff and community partners to identify resources, address barriers, and take their next steps toward stable housing.
Community members have helped shape Esperanza from the beginning. After TOOF began working at the site in 2020, residents elected a leadership committee and chose the name Esperanza. Their experiences and priorities helped inform the plan to transform the site into a shelter community rooted in dignity and connection.
That collaborative spirit continues through the residents, staff, service providers, volunteers, donors, and development partners who contribute to Esperanza every day. We are grateful to Pape-Dawson, which submitted Esperanza for this award, and to the many partners whose expertise and commitment have helped bring this vision to life. See ULI Austin’s project recognition.
For TOOF, this honor reinforces the importance of including our unhoused neighbors in Austin’s future. Building a stronger city means creating places where people can find safety, participate in community, and have support as they work toward lasting stability.
We’re proud to celebrate this recognition with everyone who makes Esperanza possible—and especially with the residents who help make it a community.
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YOUR 2025 IMPACT
We work in tandem with many partners, including public, private, foundations, faith-based, and non-profit groups.
To all who support and contribute to this work, thank you!
619
Unduplicated clients served
183
People moved into stable housing
$642,000
Earned income paid to people experiencing homelessness
434,702 lbs
Trash removed from green spaces in Austin
TOOF NEWS
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TOOF and Findhelp Films Join Forces to Tell The Story of Esperanza
The Other Ones Foundation and findhelp films have joined forces (again!) to tell the story of the Esperanza Community. The Esperanza Community is a sanctioned encampment in Austin, TX where TOOF and the residents of the site are working together to build a transitional shelter community where unhoused individuals can find the stability they need to move on to a safer and more fulfilling life. Stay tuned as this incredible story unfolds!
Life and Death in a Texas Homeless Camp
August 2021