What We Do

Since 2021, with funding only from Instagram donations, we have helped place over 150 Black, Brown, and Trans Austinites into housing who were not connected to government resources.

Our History

During the summer of 2020, while still under the name Little Petal Alliance, we saw a movement of protestors in Austin rightfully targeting APD headquarters with their actions and demonstrations. Seeing the protestors appropriate the energy and messaging of BLM while simultaneously ignoring the unhoused neighbors under I-35 where the protestors organized was a glaring disparity that we felt the need to address.

Beginning with weekly meals and donation drives for these members of our community, we built solidarity and empowered those affected by homelessness to have power and dignity in the face of inhumane conditions. This grew into a network of organizations who worked to place unhoused members of the community in hotels during the catastrophic Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 where hundreds of lives were lost across the state of Texas.

These communities are the best source of truth to guide us in addressing the crisis of homelessness. Their lived experience is more valuable and impactful than any beauracratized power structure. We have found that meeting people where they are and listening to them is immensely powerful and effective at directly making desperately needed progress.

Following Winter Storm Uri, we began fundraising on instagram to house a Black elder, four trans women, and four people (for transparency: 2 Black individuals and 2 hispanic individuals) facing housing discrimination due to prior incarceration. We also did wraparound services for each of these community members in the form of weekly meals, job placement, mental health services, clothing, and other basic needs.

Following the ban on public camping (Prop B), we put together a two month long protest surrounding City Hall. The goal was to show solidarity and take up space. This was completely occupied and led by folks experiencing homelessness other than one tent. We worked communally to sustain ourselves with donations, food stamps, and meal deliveries, had self elected roles like tent repair, setup, and camp cleanup, and worked with anyone who would bring resources to the camp. Despite every camper living in downtown, only 3 out of 55 had a current coordinated assessment (required to receive housing). The camp was brutally, publicly, illegally demolished by APD- which brought national awareness to the housing crisis in Austin. The campers were told they would never receive housing for taking part in the protest. We strategically moved almost everyone across the street upon finding out the Buford Tower was the third HEAL location that would be receiving housing, and everyone who was moved there was placed. We have since worked with those who were kicked out of the HEAL hotels on their housing. Once we start working with a camp, we do not stop until everyone who wants to be is housed.

At this point we realized that because Little Petal Alliance is a national org but was only do housing and homelessness outreach in Austin, LPA needed to be split into two organizations - one for gender euphoria resources nationally and one for housing in Austin. Queertopia was created so LPA could refocus on what they were organized for- trans joy.

We moved back to i35/8th camp, which was a predominantly Black camp of elders, queer folks, women, and youth- but within 3 months, the camp was demolished by APD on a rainy morning- without giving folks anywhere to go. We urgently raised funds through Instagram for hotels and managed to raise enough for a dozen of the camp elders (through a collective decision of the org and the camp). Through discrimination from hotels and Air BnBs, we fundraised for months to keep the elders sheltered until we were able to get them into their permanent housing. Each place we moved, the women had their own spaces, and the men split rooms between 2-3, where we built separators between sleep spaces for privacy. We created a communal home where we would bring food, provide transportation, and work on housing- but they cooked for themselves and each other, cleaned their spaces, and lived without micromanaging. Every elder who wanted housing ended up getting it either through us or us connecting them to DACC.

While operating the shelter, Queertopia was doing camp support at St. John’s Camp, Austin’s other large predominantly Black camp. We focused on that area because they had not been receiving assistance and it is extremely gentrified. We set up Sunrise Navigation Center coming out to provide coordinated assessments followed by us signing everyone onto the HACA waitlist. We brought every person to get their MAP card at Community Care and documents at DACC. During the extreme cold weather, we brought an RV to the camp as a shelter and tarped in the pavilion with the campers so they could safely practice harm reduction instead of using in the cold and potentially dying. Our Secretary rented 10 hotel rooms for a week for 40 campers and we coordinated meals, clothing, laundry, as well as visits from Harm Reduction Alliance, a follow-up from Sunrise, Community Care, and more meals from Community Resilience Trust and Good Works Austin. While we raised the funds back on Instagram, instead of reimbursing our org member, we used the funds to get folks into Community First. After the hotel, we replaced every destroyed tent at the camp with ones they could stand in, because homelessness is directly related to arthritis and back pain.

St. John’s was slated to be swept, aka demolished, days after we returned. APD even came to harass the campers about the eviction notice while we were communally watching a tour for Community First and filling out housing applications. Thankfully, after Luke and Danielle spoke to Representative Vela, he fought to have the camp closure date be pushed back. Queertopia had been advocating for the camp to be picked up by HEAL for months, and finally news broke that it would be- again, boosting the percentage of Black Austinites placed into housing by HEAL. Despite being the top support system for two large camps put into Northbridge, Queertopia has never really been welcome on property. We have had to bring clothing shops, presents, coffee makers, document support, vaccines, etc all outside the doors and more often in the street outside the fence. We have offered expertise on how to improve the program with trauma informed care so that more residents leave the shelter into housing instead of being kicked back out onto the streets. Nothing has changed. The only reason we hope for camps to be picked up by HEAL is because it is the fastest way to get into housing. It is a failing program due to lack of accountability and unwillingness to accept and manage criticism.

Due to other organizations now having funding to do outreach, we prioritize our time to provide support to those left at St Johns- who were promised housing then abandoned, our friends we assisted into Community First and other areas of town, hospitals and nursing homes that our elders are now in, and engaging with trans members of the community experiencing homelessness. We currently pay rent for 5-7 people a month with funds only from Instagram and continue outreach at St. John’s.

In two and a half years, over 40 people experiencing homelessness have taken shelter at QT Main-the ONLY shelter for LGBTQ+ people in Travis County. Almost everyone who has frequented is Black or queer, and has stayed for anywhere from a night to 6 months. We have operated our shelter with no funding and are consistently asked by orgs with funding to take people in who are being kicked out of their org’s shelter. For several months simultaneously, on no funding or funding only through Instagram- Queertopia ran a shelter at an AirBnb for Black elders, a shelter at QT Main for queer Austinites, and continued regular outreach, cold weather outreach, and hosted a hotel for St. John’s Camp.

We are ready for our goal, operating an actual funded transitional shelter for queer people experiencing homelessness- which Austin still does not have. And buying land to build a queer community.

Our mission is community empowerment led by amplifying and celebrating Queer/ Trans, Black, and Indigenous voices and taking direct action to combat the housing inequity that has swept our city.

What We’ve Achieved