AUSTIN (Feb. 17, 2022) – The freeze that happened in February 2021 was life-threatening for people living outside.

A team of volunteers recognized the immense need to get people inside and started raising money for hotel rooms, bringing in more than $85,000 for 200+ rooms to shelter hundreds of people for the duration of the freeze. Founded just six months earlier, the mobile outreach nonprofit Maximizing Hope was instrumental in the effort.

“I truly believe because of the work that these organizations did working together, we saved lives,” says Tonya Coy, founder of Maximizing Hope. “I think people did not die because we put them in rooms.”

A year later, we’re looking back on the mammoth effort to keep people safe and spotlight the daily outreach that proves Maximizing Hope is Fiercely Focused on ending homelessness.