For Misty Richardson, helping people experiencing homelessness is not simply a cause. It is personal.
Misty spent 15 years experiencing homelessness herself, beginning when she was a child.
She remembers sleeping in a car with her father and sister and later staying in a vacant apartment in Houston’s Third Ward. Those years gave her an understanding of homelessness that goes far beyond what most people see from the outside.
She knows what it feels like to need help. She also knows how difficult it can be to climb out from underneath the label of homelessness when support is limited.
Today, Misty is the founder of Reach The Homeless, an organization that works with volunteers and community partners to help people experiencing homelessness across Houston.
But her journey from one side of that experience to the other was anything but simple.
“Why Not Me?”
Misty became the first person in her family to graduate from high school and the first to attend college.
Growing up, she remembers hearing people talk about those who were struggling.
Someone should help them.
Someone should do something.
Eventually, Misty began asking a different question:
Why not me?
Once she was able to get back on her feet, she started helping people one at a time.
For years, the work remained small and personal. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, circumstances began bringing different organizations and volunteers together.
What began as individual efforts grew into a larger network of people working toward the same goal.
Today, Reach The Homeless coordinates outreach efforts that can serve hundreds of people in a single day.
Volunteers distribute sandwiches, food that can be saved for later, hygiene supplies and other necessities. But Misty is quick to explain that the work is about more than handing someone a bag and walking away.
It is about sitting down.
Listening.
Learning someone’s story.
And asking what they actually need.
The Barriers Most People Never See
One of the most eye-opening parts of Misty’s story is how quickly she dismantles some of the assumptions surrounding homelessness.
From the outside, it may seem simple to tell someone to get a job, go to a shelter or find an apartment.
The reality can be far more complicated.
How do you get a job without identification?
How do you replace identification without the documents necessary to obtain it?
How do you receive documents without an address?
How do you secure housing without income?
And how do you maintain a job if the shelter available to you has requirements that make working difficult?
These are the kinds of barriers Misty encounters regularly.
She says some people who initially refuse shelter are not refusing help altogether. They may have had negative experiences in shelters or may be uncomfortable with certain shelter environments.
That is why she believes listening matters.
Rather than deciding what someone needs before speaking to them, Misty asks.
Sometimes the need is shelter.
Sometimes it is clothing.
Sometimes it is identification.
Sometimes it is simply someone willing to help navigate the next step.
Building More Than an Outreach Organization
Misty is also thinking about how technology might make that process easier.
While attending college and studying technology and artificial intelligence, she began developing the idea for an application that could simplify the process of connecting people experiencing homelessness with available resources.
Her observation was straightforward: people seeking assistance are often asked the same questions repeatedly by different organizations.
Her vision is for a system where someone could provide their information once and potentially be connected with multiple organizations or resources for which they qualify.
It is one more example of how Misty approaches the problem.
She does not only see homelessness.
She sees the obstacles surrounding it.
Then she begins asking how those obstacles might be removed.
A Bigger Vision
Misty’s long-term vision for Reach The Homeless goes even further.
She would eventually like the organization to have its own shelter.
She has imagined purchasing a large building or even converting an older hotel into a place where people could receive shelter while staying closely connected to the support they need to move forward.
Funding remains one of the biggest obstacles to that vision.
For now, Reach The Homeless continues working through partnerships, volunteers, donated supplies and community outreach.
Misty believes the community itself is one of the greatest resources available.
And participation does not always require writing a large check.
She remembers one volunteer who had previously experienced homelessness herself bringing a single loaf of bread to an outreach event.
The woman apologized because it was all she could afford.
Misty reminded her that one loaf of bread could help feed multiple people.
That moment captured something central to Misty’s philosophy.
Small contributions matter.
Showing up matters.
Listening matters.
“I Can Change One Person’s World”
At one point, someone told Misty she was doing too much.
She could not change the world.
The comment stayed with her, but perhaps not in the way it was intended.
Misty realized they were partly right.
One person may not be able to change the entire world alone.
But one person can change another person’s world.
And when the person who was helped turns around and helps someone else, the impact begins to multiply.
For Misty, that is how change happens.
One person.
One conversation.
One meal.
One opportunity.
One life at a time.
Her story is not simply about surviving homelessness.
It is about what happened afterward.
Misty took some of the most difficult chapters of her own life and turned them into a way of recognizing people who are too often overlooked.
Her past did not disappear.
Instead, it became a bridge.
And today, she is using it to help others find their way forward.
About 100 Houston Voices
100 Houston Voices is a Houston City Beat series sharing conversations with the people who make Houston what it is: entrepreneurs, artists, nonprofit leaders, community builders, professionals and everyday Houstonians with a story worth hearing.
We meet. We listen. We share the stories of Houston.
Learn more about Misty Richardson and Reach The Homeless through her Houston City Beat Community Kites profile.
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