Our Work

VOCAL-TX builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness in order to create healthy and just communities. We accomplish this through community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct services, participatory research and direct action on the following issues:

Ending the
War on Drugs

Drug Policy

What we’re fighting for:

  • Funding to support the life-saving work of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance and other harm reduction programs across the state 
  • A transparent process that includes community input to utilize millions in opioid settlement funds across Texas
  • Authorization of syringe service programs (HB 1403), drug checking tools (HB 224, HB 987, HB 1365, SB 623, SB 868)  and decriminalization of drug paraphernalia (HB 753, HB 2775)

Facts:

  • The CDC estimates that over 5,000 Texans are dying of a drug-related overdose each year and fentanyl-related deaths rose 399% in 2021. This number is severely underreported, however, as only 15 of the 254 Texas counties have a medical examiner.
  • Texas is one of a dozen states that has not authorized harm reduction programs. 
  • The State still criminalizes the possession of drug paraphernalia (including fentanyl test strips, syringes, and smoking kits) and small, personal use amounts of cannabis and controlled substances, and it has enacted a discriminatory overdose Good Samaritan law.
  • The state imposes barriers to HCV treatment that other states and federal authorities have lifted.
Ending Homelessness

Ending Homelessness

What we’re fighting for:

  • The roll-out of a fully-funded permanent free transportation program for people experiencing homelessness in Austin.
  • An expansion of supportive and affordable housing, with units set aside for people exiting homelessness
  • Repeal the state camping ban and end sweeps of homeless encampments

Facts:

  • In 2022 over 93,000 Texans experienced homelessness. On any given night in our state, 25,000-30,000 people live on the streets or in shelters.
  • In 2021, the state legislature passed legislation to criminalize homeless encampments across the state, leaving thousands of people to be displaced, their belongings lost or destroyed, and lives pushed further into the margins from life-saving services.
Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic

What we’re fighting for:

  • Expanding testing and treatment options for people living with HIV/AIDS

Facts:

  • HIV and hepatitis C cases are rising, with over  4,000 new cases of HIV each year for the past 10 years. 
  • There are over 113,000 Texans living with HIV. Seventeen percent of people are not aware of their status, which means they are not getting the care they need.
Ending
Mass Incarceration

Mass Incarceration

What we’re fighting for:

  • Decriminalize possession of drug paraphernalia  (HB 753, HB 2775)
  • Decriminalize personal use amounts of cannabis and controlled substances
  • End the Texas DPS-Austin Police Department partnership

Facts:

  • Texas ranks among the top states for highest rates of incarceration in the nation, with an incarceration rate of 840 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities).
  • Using drug war tactics to weaponize fentanyl and the overdose crisis, Operation Lone Star is an over $4 billion border enforcement operation that targets Black and Brown communities for arrest, jail, and deportation.
  • In 2023, Governor Abbott signed into law a new drug-induced homicide law, charging the manufacturing or delivering of fentanyl as murder, if someone dies from an overdose.