There are more than 5600 homeless youth and adults living in the Austin area. We serve many of them. The greatest need with the least supply is t-shirts. T-shirts are a staple in most households across the country, often taken for granted. Many of our street youth and homeless friends do not have access to laundry facilities or money to pay for clothes to be cleaned. They can only carry up to 2 changes of clothes in their back packs because what they can carry on their backs is all they own.

So here is the math:

If each person we serve needs a new shirt every 2-3 days.

That’s 3 shirts/week.

Multiplied by 52 weeks / year.

Equals 156 shirts / person / year.

LINC Austin serves more than 60 street youth and homeless monthly.

156 shirts multiplied by 60 equals 9,360 shirts / year.

We are asking our partners to consider joining this movement in your churches, schools, youth groups, and neighborhoods. Groups can provide designated areas during a designated time to have participants offer the EXTRA shirt off their back. Every shirt will directly benefit the street youth and homeless served by LINC Austin.

Contact Haleh Kersten if you have any questions or are interested in being involved with Shirt Off Your Back.