'It's the right thing to do': Austin man takes care of homeless animals and their owners

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14-04-2025

Stephen Tucker's home was a burgundy Buick Regal Gran Sport parked in the downtown lot under Interstate 35, with blankets covering the windows. Tucker had recently replaced the battery, but the car still wouldn't start.
'Hey, it's the mechanic!' Brendan Gemmell hollered as he pulled up in his Austin Animal Services van on a recent morning.
'Can you give me a boost?' Tucker asked.
'You got it, brother,' Gemmell said.
While Tucker connected the jumper cables, his partner, Laurie Parkhurst, dished about their three dogs — how Stitch got neutered ('Good!' Gemmell said), how Rose was getting compliments on that dog sweater Gemmell had given her, how Molly's birthday was coming up that weekend.
'Give these to them for birthday presents,' said Gemmell, handing Parkhurst three bully stick chew toys. 'Make sure they don't fight over them.'
Gemmell is not the animal control officer who seizes strays. As the homeless outreach guy for Austin Animal Services, he's more of an Officer Friendly for the canine crowd. His van is filled with donated goods — leashes, harnesses, chew toys and kibble — for pets living with people experiencing homelessness.
'Just call Animal Services and ask for the Canadian,' the extrovert from Alberta tells people.
Gemmell has connected countless people to homeless services. Occasionally he arbitrates pet custody disputes when a homeless couple splits. But on the day I rode with Gemmell, his prize offering was voltage for Tucker's car.
'Thank you!' Tucker said as the Buick roared to life for the first time in five days. 'You don't know how many people I've tried to get this started.'
After some handshakes and hugs, Gemmell was back on the road, still thinking of the two people and three pets living in that worn-out sedan. He wants to make things better, but sometimes he's just guarding against things getting worse.
'That's (Tucker's) home,' Gemmell said. 'If I can keep him in his car, that's better than a tent. That's better than the woods. If I can keep him in his car, the dogs are with their family.'
'It's the right thing to do,' he said.
Gemmell launched his homeless pet outreach program — a rarity, if not the first of its kind in the country — in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, as the city's temporarily relaxed homeless camping ban meant more camps appearing in public spaces. That meant more loose dogs downtown, many of them landing in kennels at the Austin Animal Center.
People were losing their companions. And there was a cost to taxpayers: $50 a night to house each new animal arriving at the city-owned, no-kill shelter, plus the growing roster of dogs needing new adoptive homes.
"When it comes to Austin Animal Center, we don't care who you are, whether you're in Westlake or in the woods,' Gemmell told me. 'We just want your dog to stay with you."
With his supervisor's blessing, Gemmell shifted from all-purpose community outreach to connecting with people experiencing homelessness. If he could get leashes and collars in their hands, they could secure their pets. If he got to know people and their dogs, he could help reunite them if they ever got separated.
In 2021, when the grant funding ran out for Gemmell's position, then-Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly made sure the city found $86,000 to keep his program going. I wondered if such an investment, while well intentioned, might contribute to more pets living in conditions that are challenging enough for humans.
'The individuals who had those dogs, they were taking great care of them,' Kelly told me recently, recalling what she saw in a 2021 ride-along with Gemmell. 'They provided not just companionship but a sense of security. The quality of life these individuals have, I think, is better because of the animals that provide a little bit of comfort in a really difficult situation.'
Gemmell remains a one-man operation on an impressive scale, handing out about 19,000 basic pet care items in roughly 3,500 encounters per year. All the goods are donations he secured from Tomlinson's Feed, Hollywood Feed, Costco, local Amazon distribution centers and others.
'We call him constantly, saying, 'Hey, we've got five dogs in this camp. They're starving,'' said Sgt. Drew McAngus, who does homeless outreach full-time for the Precinct 3 Constable's Office in southwestern Travis County. 'He's Johnny-on-the-spot. He gets there, he meets the needs, and that gives people a peace of mind. It reduces the stress that we see on the streets.'
Helping people exit homelessness is all about building trust and relationships. And studies suggest up to 25% of the people experiencing homelessness have a pet — making animal outreach a potentially effective way to build rapport with people who need help.
Still, it's unusual for a city animal shelter to have a program like Gemmell's, said Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. 'I don't know if it exists anywhere else in the country,' he told me.
But he hopes other cities take notice.
Gemmell pulled up to a side street in South Austin, where a woman stood with her pets, which were in the crates he'd given her a while back. Her belongings were stuffed in a black suitcase. City sweeps had taken away the nonworking car and makeshift tent that once provided her shelter.
The city kept offering the woman a spot in a bridge shelter, but she wouldn't take it. Only one pet is allowed. She had a dog and two kittens.
'She loves them animals,' Gemmell told me. 'We can argue about it, but they could be the reason she gets up in the mornings. They may also be hindering her, because she won't go to the bridge shelter.'
Gemmell won't force anyone in that position to give up their pets. He just keeps visiting them, offering food and encouragement. He reminds them he could find a good home for those other animals, and that the bridge shelter would be better than the curb.
'Just remember there are people who care about you and want to help you,' Gemmell told the woman, sounding more like a crisis counselor than an animal control officer. 'We want you to be happy and healthy.'
The woman nodded, then drifted into a story about battling demons and galactic curses, defending the kingdom of heaven.
'You're a strong woman,' Gemmell responded.
'Can I give you a hug?' the woman asked, growing tearful. As they embraced, she whispered, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.'
A few weeks later, the woman was gone. Gemmell heard that a church-based program had offered her shelter. He hoped she was getting the support she needed. In five years, he has seen so much churn: People going into shelters, then into housing, then returning to the streets.
'I don't know how to solve it. It's a challenge,' said Gemmell. 'God bless it, I deal with the four-legged. When you get people involved, it's more challenging.'
He pulled up to a spot under a Texas 71 overpass, and Angel, a Rottweiler/Doberman mix, galloped over to greet Gemmell.
'She's the only dog I've ever seen run to the dog catcher,' joked Angel's owner, a man who identified himself only as Shawn.
Gemmell's been checking on Shawn for five years. Shawn said he used to live in a home behind the nearby strip mall before his life unraveled. His wife's illness. Her death. The mountain of medical debt.
'I am out here by choice until I figure out where I'm going,' Shawn told me. His voice quivered. Years-old losses still cut fresh.
He has just one dog, and better yet, Shawn is a Gulf War veteran, so there are resources to help him. I asked what he still needed.
'I'm not ready to return to your world,' he said, weighted by a burden most of us will never understand.
But until that day, Gemmell will keep showing up, dog treats in hand, ready to show the way.
Grumet is the Statesman's Editorial Page Editor. Her column contains her opinions. Share yours via email at [e-mail], or via X or Bluesky at @bgrumet.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Animal Services helps homeless people by helping their pets