Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Into the Fold is part of the Texas Podcast Network, the Conversations Changing the World brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin. The opinions expressed in this podcast represent the views of the hosts and guests and not of the University of Texas at Austin.
On a summer morning in July 2025, floodwaters swept through Burnett and Llano counties in central Central Texas, turning quiet roads into rivers.
Homes were lost, families displaced, older adults had to be rescued from a HUD apartment complex.
An RV park was destroyed. In the middle of this chaos, local residents and organizations came together quickly, compassionately to meet the most urgent needs.
Community Resource Centers of Texas, working alongside the Texas Housing foundation, began placing displaced residents in motels within hours of the first calls for help.
Over the weeks that followed, they helped people find more stable housing, rebuild connections and restore a sense of hope.
This kind of community care may not always make the headlines, but it's where resilience be begins.
And that's what today's conversation is all about.
Hey all, welcome to into the Fold, the Mental Health Podcast. I'm Mike Evans and I'm glad to have you with us as we continue our season long exploration of growing capacity for change. This episode is part two of our community arc.
Over these three episodes, we're looking at community based solutions for mental health and well being that elevates local voices, lived experience and finding the areas where the local and the practical meets up with the systemic and the abstract.
For today, mutual aid, mutual respect.
We'll explore what it means for communities to take care of one another in moments of crisis and how that support connects directly to mental health and healing. My guest today is Dawn Capra, Director of Housing Advocacy for Texas Housing Foundation.
Though dawn may not use the phrase mutual aid to describe her work, her story perfectly captures the spirit of community solidarity that mutual aid represents. Dawn, we are so glad to have you with us here today.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: I want to start with the story of what happened this past summer.
So In July of 2025, severe flooding in your part of the state in Burnett and Llano counties and just the serious impacts that that had.
And I know that Community Resource Centers of Texas, I think working alongside the Texas Housing foundation, was sort of there from day one, kind of helping people find safe shelter and start rebuilding their lives. And so I would just really love it if you could walk us through those first few days, what you saw, how your team mobilized and how partnerships came together so quickly.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Sure.
First, I want to clarify that community Resource Centers of Texas is part of the Texas Housing Foundation.
So we are one entity.
But as far as our immediate response, the first thing we did was ensure people were placed in a safe environment.
So it was all about getting people to safety, which in general meant placing people in, into motel rooms to get them out of danger.
A lot of them.
We had a lot of RV parks that had been washed out, so they were totally without housing. And along with their RVs, their cars went down the, the rivers and the creeks as well. So they did not have any safe shelter and nowhere to go. So the only thing we could do was provide emergency shelter for them. And then this area, emergency shelters, are motel rooms, because we do not have any other kinds of emergency shelters.
So our first goal was basically to stabilize people and then figure out what we were going to do next. And that's when we started working with our partners.
And one thing we realized was that if we stayed in our lane, if we each stayed in our own lanes, then everything would work smoothly. And that's kind of how this, the partnership with the different governmental agencies at the county level and the state level and even with FEMA and then the local nonprofits evolved.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: The Hogg foundation gave a small grant to your organization, one of our special opportunity grants.
And so I was just curious about how that small grant kind of fit into the work that you've been doing since the summer and what needs it has been helping you to address on the ground.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: So the immediate thing that it helped us provide was to continue providing that emergency shelter in the motel rooms. Some people needed to stay there a week to two weeks until they were able to get back home or get an rv. There were a couple of nonprofits working on getting people new RVs.
So we did not need to get them into temporary housing. We just need to be. We needed to be able to fund them to stay in the motels until they could get back home.
On the other hand, there were those who were going to need 90 days before they were able to get back into their homes, depending on the damage done.
And they had to wait for FEMA to make decisions on funding.
You know, they have. FEMA has several requirements that have to be fulfilled, so they had to deal with those types of red tape issues.
Red Cross also came into play.
So until we, we did use some of that funding to help people stay in transitional or temporary housing until they were able to get back in. And that funding that we received from Hogg foundation helped us to either pay deposit to get them into a hotel I mean, I'm sorry, into temporary housing or to pay their first month's rent.
And we were able to do that with many of the survivors who came to us for help.
Our lane, when I. It falls in perfectly with what we discovered. Our lane was going to be providing the immediate shelter with the motels and then the temporary shelter until they could get back into their homes or into a new rv.
That is what we concentrated on doing.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Okay. And so what strikes me is how this work goes beyond logistics. It's about restoring dignity and hope for people in an incredibly stressful moment, which is as much about mental health, you know, as it is about housing.
And you know that. And so it goes without saying that the Hogg foundation would consider this work to be worth supporting.
And so moving on to my next question.
When disasters happen again, we tend to focus on the physical rebuilding, but the emotional recovery often takes a lot longer.
And so what kinds of mental and emotional needs have you been seeing among folks who have been displaced by the flooding?
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Well, so we aren't mental health professionals, but we do see the trauma that affects or affected the people who were involved in this flood.
It, it caused life changing alterations and fear.
You know, they lost everything. So they didn't know what their next steps were going to be. And frankly, they were just in shock.
And at first we helped staff this thing called the Mark. It's a multi agency resource center. And fortunately from there it was very well coordinated through the Burnett County Emergency Management Team.
Bluebonnet Trails, our local mental health authority was there. So we were able to refer people over to them if they were in crisis, some of the people who were definitely in crisis.
But what we tried to do in response to that anxiety and trauma was to relieve their anxiety. You know, they weren't sure how they were going to live, how they were going to work, how they were going to be able to start over after losing everything.
And by remaining calm and providing that remaining calm was our big thing. Because if, if we got tied up with them emotionally, then we couldn't exude the confidence that they really needed to see at the moment. You know, they, they are basically, they wouldn't have confidence in us to be able to help them. You see what I'm saying? You know, if we got, if we cried with them or we got emotionally involved, then they wouldn't have confidence that we could help them. So we try to remain calm, reassure them and let them know we're here to help you. We know your homes, your pets, your cars, your clothes, everything is gone. Not all pets were gone.
I can tell you a couple of stories in a minute about that if you would like to hear them.
And we realized that you're not just displayed displaced physically, but also emotionally.
So we really, it just, it was like a huge light bulb. It's like without stable housing, without knowing where you're going to put your head at night or knowing, well, where am I going to go to take a shower so I can go to work the next day? It's, it is hard to carry on.
And that's, that's part of what, what we had to say, part of the reason why we are changing our focus as a company. I mean, Texas Housing foundation has always provided affordable housing, but now we're looking at the whole spectrum from something like we've lost everything, so now we're living in an emergency shelter.
How do we get them into temporary shelter and then eventually into more stable housing.
This flood really jump started that process for us because we realize without it, people don't have the ability to think clearly, to even make simple decisions or fill out a simple form.
I need to get my new driver's license. And then they get on the computer and it's just, it's too much just even typing in Department of Public Safety driver's license renewal.
So that helped us this, this flood really, really put a spotlight on how much housing affects your mental health if you suddenly find yourself without it.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Okay, so you mentioned a couple of stories alluding to some of the things that people lost in the flooding. Yeah, I'd love it if you could just share, let's say one of those.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Well, there are two.
I can make it quick.
There is the Burnett Housing Authority, which is the city of Burnett. They have a complex That's a Section 8 complex, which if you don't know what Section 8 means, it provides funding for low income people. It's a, it's a HUD program.
Their entire complex was wiped out by the, by the flood.
And their Section 8 waiver that keeps their rents very low stays with that complex. It's not a portable waiver.
In some instances, people have portable waivers and they can take them to other places, but in this instance, they couldn't.
So everybody who lived in that complex panicked because they thought they would lose their waivers.
Fortunately, through partnerships with us and one of the motels and the burned housing authority itself, we were able to keep those residents housed with help from the Hogg foundation money until they were able to get back into that complex, repair that complex and get back in. And the majority of the people who lived in that complex were over the age of 70.
So it was an extremely scary time in their lives.
We also had a survival story of an older gentleman who was 67 years old and he stayed with his dog in his hand. His RV was washed away. He was in the RV and he was able to grab hold of a limb and hang onto that limb with his dog for 12 hours until he was rescued. Of course, he was definitely emotionally traumatized because he'd lived in that RV for years and his entire house was gone.
We were able through with the help of Blue Bonnet Trails to get him settled and calmed down and into a hotel until we were able to get him a new rv.
But just that trauma of losing his home and not having it anymore was almost too much for him to bear.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Okay. And so that kind of care, meeting people where they are without judgment, kind of just in the situation that you find them in, is very much in the spirit of mutual aid. Which gets us to our topic for today.
It's about recognizing that everyone has something to give and something that they need.
And so you don't describe what you do as mutual aid. But I can't help hearing echoes of that theme in your story.
Showing up for people, perhaps neighbors helping neighbors, local organizations stepping in where systems are frayed or the normal support systems that people rely on just suddenly, suddenly caught short.
And so how do you, how do you think about the role of mutual respect and community trust in your work?
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Well, in rural communities there's.
You have to have trust and relationships with different organizations and churches between individuals is everything.
Because without it, we couldn't function. There's. There's just not enough money out in rural areas to provide a lot of the.
The help that Austin, San Antonio or Dallas could provide.
The cities are not. Or the counties are not able to provide a lot of this stuff. So you have to rely on the community.
So without the help of agencies or nonprofits, us as a company, thf we couldn't have provided all the support that these people needed.
So we had, through the course of years, you know, we've developed relationships with people and those relationship with those relationships, we were able to meet this demand.
The cooperation made the recovery possible.
We, I would like to say though there is one non profit in town, the arc. They have a huge volunteer base and they are. Were the unsung heroes of this disaster recovery. The volunteers helped people muck out their homes. In some instances they helped rebuild homes when they could.
They provided hot Meals, they brought groceries to them. And without the volunteers, a lot of that work would not have got done.
So they are even part of that collaboration that, that the. The cooperation that we have with each other, which I guess is what you're calling mutual aid.
We wouldn't have been able. A lot of that work wouldn't have been able to be done without the. The army of volunteers that the ARC had gathered and coordinated, and then the nonprofits. Once we got together, we realized that we couldn't do it alone. So again, I mentioned earlier that we figured out what each of our lanes were and we stayed in it. And because of that, we were able to have this seamless track, if you will, start out at the arc, which was the central entry point for people into our recovery program. And then from the arc, if they would be directed to what they needed next, which generally was us to get temporary housing or emergency shelter, and then we would direct them to Salvation army or to whomever else that they needed to go to to either get financial assistance or food or anything else like that.
So it was. It was a seamless program that we created basically on the fly, but we stuck with what we knew, and we didn't step on each other's toes, and there was no competition. And I think that that mutual respect that we had for what our abilities were, what we could handle the best, is what made the recovery for a lot of these people go smoother than it otherwise would have if we would have not respected each other's boundaries.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: And not that you're in the habit of lecturing other people, but any lessons from this experience that maybe other communities could learn about preparedness and response, not just in terms of infrastructure, but just in terms of compassion and connectedness.
Is there anything that really sticks out in your mind?
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Well, coalition building is huge ahead of time, even in times when there's not a disaster.
To have a strong coalition of nonprofits and you include in that your. Your local governments, whether it's city or county, if you have a strong coalition within your county of these groups, including the churches, then you've got your start. That's a good base to start with.
Then shared funding, manpower, moral support. When you start.
I mean, we. We got mentally, physically, emotionally exhausted, but we had each other to rely on, and open communication, those kinds of things.
Open communication is really key, but that's what helps you be more successful during times of strife, when you have to mobilize quickly. If you've already built that coalition amongst the groups in your area, that's what I would say. I would say, you know, start that coalition building now and start working with the people in your area, getting to know them, understanding it, what it is that they do, and figuring out what your boundaries are and what you're best at doing instead of trying to do everything.
And that will help people be better. It will help your community be better prepared. You can't always be totally prepared for disaster, but it will help you be better prepared.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: When I hear your story, I think about how mutual aid and mutual respect are really two sides of the same coin. When we honor people's dignity, we build the kind of trust that makes recovery and real mental health possible, which is, I guess, a bridge to kind of. My last question, lasting recovery. So the news cycle has long since moved on from the. From the flooding disaster.
And so, you know, for our listeners, if there's anything that's still going on in your area that you would like to make them aware of needs that people still have and ways that they can help.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Well, some of them are still struggling to find a place to live. Not everybody has been placed, still working with the ARC and with us.
Many of them lost their jobs.
So we've referred them to the people, the nonprofits in the area, like Workforce Solutions or we have this local nonprofit called Workforce Network to help them, to place them in jobs where they can start making money so that they can get into housing.
What we realize, though, is recovery isn't something that we do for people. It's something that we do with them, so we help them through it. Yeah, but you have to realize that each survivor has to do what they think is best for their own future. We can't tell them what to do. We can only offer them avenues and choices.
But by taking care of their immediate needs.
Housing, in our case, emergency shelter, making sure they have food, helping them with car repairs.
Those types of things can relieve their stress enough so that they can start thinking clearly about decisions that they need to make for their futures, and they can be confident in those decisions.
And then helping them with choices of alternative housing, that's one thing that we do, too. You know, you might not go back into an rv.
Maybe we look for a tiny home for you, or we find somebody who's renting a space, you know, maybe a garage apartment.
Just different ways, different alternatives to housing is something that we can help people try to look for.
In working with landlords, we have found out those. Those kind of things. If we have. If we have those kinds of choices for people, once we've helped them through their immediate needs with the aid of other nonprofits and churches in the area, then it helps them make a decision.
Okay, this is good. This is what I need to do.
And that's the lesson that we learned and that's what I would tell people.
That's how you would empower a survivor, I guess.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Right?
Okay dawn, thank you for all the great insight. Thank you for all the great information.
We really do appreciate you taking the time to explore this with us today.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate the chance to tell our story.
And thank you again to the Hogg foundation for the grant that we received.
It has definitely been very helpful to those that we needed to help. Hate to sound redundant, but yes, we look forward to continuing to work with the Hogg foundation in future endeavors.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: Before we wrap up, a quick reminder that this episode is part of our new season theme Growing Capacity for Change.
Across four community partnership, policy and research, innovation and education.
We're exploring how people all across Texas are growing their capacity toward a better, more lasting mental health landscape.
If you haven't already, check out our previous episodes this season and follow along as we we continue to tell stories that connect and inspire.
And that does it for this episode. We're glad that you could join us. Production assistance by Cheyenne Salazar, Kate Rooney and Daryl Wiggins and thanks as always to the Hogg foundation for its support.
If you have comments or anything you would like to share about the podcast, feel free to reach out to us at into the Fold at Austin Utexas. Edu.
Thoughtful comments will be acknowledged during a future episode. Your My Our Mental Health Matters. Please leave us a review and subscribe to us on your preferred podcast platform.
And don't forget to check out the show notes for related content, including past episodes. Transition Music by Northbound Taking us out now is Anna's Good Vibes by our good friend Anna Harris. Thanks for joining us.
