The project, which is set to break ground next year, will include places for residents to live, garden, worship and work.
In Austin, Texas, a project to offer affordable housing to some 200 chronically homeless citizens is on the move. Community First! Village, which has been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years, is set to soon break ground on a 27-acre property sprinkled with tiny houses, mobile homes, teepees, refurbished RVs, a three-acre community garden, a chapel, a medical facility, a workshop, a bed and breakfast, and an Alamo Drafthouse outdoor movie theater.
Also see: Brad Kittel Builds “Tiny Texas Houses”
Supporter Alan Graham, of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, notes that the price of not housing these folks costs taxpayers about $10 million a year, not to mention the emotional and psychological tolls on the homeless themselves.
Graham says that, for the most part, local residents seem to be in favor of the project. “We haven’t converted everybody,” he says, “but when people come out here they go, ‘Oh!’ They see a chapel, they see medical and vocational services on site, and they learn that residents will not live there for free. They’ll pay a monthly rent.”
Courtesy of Brad Kittell via The Rag Blog)” width=”637″ height=”424″ />(Photo: Courtesy of Brad Kittell via The Rag Blog)
Graham has been working with the homeless in his community for more than 14 years and cites broken families as the leading cause of homelessness. With Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Graham has not only helped feed the homeless all these years, but he has helped transition them into homes and jobs as well.
And he has given them hope. Graham views Community First! as the next step in that mission and the next step toward solving homelessness in the U.S.
As the local NPR station (KUT) reports, Alamo Drafthouse’s founder Tim League is another outspoken cheerleader for Community First! Village. In fact, he calls it “the very first ‘Yes, in my backyard’ project.”
Watch the video.
This article originally appeared on Shareable.net.
Our most important fundraising appeal of the year
December is the most critical time of year for Truthout, because our nonprofit news is funded almost entirely by individual donations from readers like you. So before you navigate away, we ask that you take just a second to support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation.
This year is a little different. We are up against a far-reaching, wide-scale attack on press freedom coming from the Trump administration. 2025 was a year of frightening censorship, news industry corporate consolidation, and worsening financial conditions for progressive nonprofits across the board.
We can only resist Trump’s agenda by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. At Truthout, we have you.
We’ve set an ambitious target for our year-end campaign — a goal of $225,000 to keep up our fight against authoritarianism in 2026. Please take a meaningful action in this fight: make a one-time or monthly donation to Truthout before December 31. If you have the means, please dig deep.