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| This is one of the tiny homes in the Mobile Loaves & Fishes' Community First! Village. |
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| We saw a lot of Grace & Mercy and Goodness in Austin, Texas, at Mobile Loaves & Fishes' Community First! Village. |
Learn, gain valuable insight, plan, pray. Those were our main goals in Austin, Texas this past week.
Thanks to a grant given to the Southeast Alabama Coalition of the Homeless, I was honored to travel to Austin with The Harbor Executive Director Kody Kirchhoff, The Ark Executive Director Jeff Peacock, Genesis Housing Executive Director David Jamison, and Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba.
We attended a symposium put on by Mobile Loaves & Fishes, which is a social outreach ministry that has been empowering communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless since 1998. They do this in three different ways:
- Truck Ministry: provides food for the homeless in Austin seven nights a week.
- Community First! Village: A 51-acre master planned development that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness.
- Community Works: Provides micro-enterprise opportunities that enable residents of the Community First! Village to earn a dignified income, while also developing new skills and cultivating enduring relationships.
Our main reason for attending the symposium was to learn about the Community First! Village. Our ministries do excellent jobs of meeting many of the needs of the homeless in Dothan. Permanent housing is one major area we have not been able to accomplish as ministries and as a city. In Austin, we saw how they do it.
It's not as easy as copying and pasting, because one size does not fit all. However, we witnessed a true breakthrough in providing permanent housing for the homeless.
The homes are not just given to the homeless. They have to go through an application process and pay monthly for their homes. Those living in the Community First! Village pay for their homes through their disability checks, SSI checks, earned incomes or sponsorships.
Does everyone succeed in the Community First! Village? No. However, their success rate is an amazing 88 percent in the first four years of the village.
Mobile Loaves & Fishes believes the single greatest cause of homelessness is the "profound catastrophic loss of family." They also believe housing will never solve homelessness, but community will.
I can't argue with either of those statements. In most of the lives of the homeless I've ever met, they lost their family at some point. They don't have a support system through family as many of us do. That often leads to poor decisions that furthers the downward spiral.
They have a strong argument about community as well. When you live in true community you have so much support, encouragement and hope. When you live in community through Jesus Christ and how the early Christians did in the Book of Acts, then there will be true transformation and people can overcome anything through the power of God.
Can a community like this become a reality in Dothan? It sure can. It will take a lot of prayer, planning, work, and money. It won't just happen overnight. But, if the Body of Christ can truly come together with the support of our community it can happen.
What are the next steps? Stay tuned and keep us in your prayers.
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| The Community First! Village has an amphitheater where a Friday night movie is shown every week. People from Austin and other areas come to attend this fun, family night. |
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| RV campers are also part of the Mobile Loaves & Fishes Community First! Village. |
2 comments:
What do you think about mixing income levels in a small home development complex? The problem with public housing is that it concentrates poverty and the kids do not see anything different so they do not break the cycle. There are a lot of young people who would like to be independent and your idea could benefit them and keep them from becoming homeless.
We have actually talked about that concept, too. Small houses for the elderly is another idea, especially as the Baby Boomers age. It might work. More study needed on that. This will not be public housing, however. It would be a planned development paid for by private funds, not public. It would be faith-based. Still a lot of praying and planning to do. Thank you for your input. God bless you.
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