Nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes is marking the 10th anniversary of its landmark Community First! Village, the master-planned community for residents exiting homelessness that's now expanding in Northeast and Southeast Austin.

The big picture

The social outreach ministry MLF was started by founder and CEO Alan Graham in the late 1990s. Today, it's nationally recognized for its Community First! housing initiative that now serves hundreds of people in a unique—and growing—neighborhood.

The original village at 9301 Hog Eye Road includes scores of tiny homes alongside features like community centers, a clinic, kitchens, gardens and parks, an amphitheater, and a chapel. The community's design is based around MLF's "Neighborhoods of Knowingness" model that concentrates residential pockets of a few dozen homes around shared spaces and amenities.Graham called that neighborhood planning an "architectural game changer" that's allowing MLF to gradually scale up its housing while bringing residents closer together day-to-day.

“If you drive around Austin, you look up underneath our bridges and on our street corners, what you see and what appears to most people is a hopeless situation," he said in an Oct. 20 interview. "When they come out to the village and within an hour period of time of touring, exact same people that were under the bridges and on street corners and in our urban camps, what people walk away with is a transformative sense of hopefulness."

Blair Racine, a village resident of nearly eight years, said he enjoys the friendships and community programming that lets residents "feel good about themselves."

"We’re changing peoples’ lives. There’s people I’ve had on the streets 13, 20 years. They’re happy people now. I’m allowed to watch that happen, that transformation’s incredible. Being a part of seeing that is so incredible," he said.



MLF marked the opening of the village's newest expansion covering 51 acres across the street from the existing site. The property houses the nonprofit's new headquarters and already features some residential areas, with room to grow to 600 total microhomes, model RV spaces, "tiny townhomes" and larger family homes in the future.

Residents will be moving in by late 2025, and Graham said the nonprofit can add 100 new homes on the property in around four months or less as funding comes in.

"We are not shovel-ready, we are beyond shovel-ready. We are hammer-ready," he said. "No more digging machines, no more water, sewer and electric lines, no more concrete slabs. All we need is wood, hammers and money."Zooming in

Housing and caring for residents at Community First! Village is significantly cheaper than many other publicly funded homelessness programs, according to MLF.

The nonprofit estimates that each of its smaller housing options costs roughly $80,000 to build, while costs associated with subsidizing each resident come in at about $20,000 a year. In comparison, Graham said permanent supportive housing providing a longer-term living situation with wraparound services can cost governments and their partners up to $400,000 to develop and operate.

As part of its 10-year summit event hosted Oct. 22, MLF also shared findings from an outside report on its finances and operations. Nicole De Santis, a partner with Boston Consulting Group's Austin office, said the firm estimates the Community First! model is saving thousands of public dollars per person on an annual basis. That finding is based on a roughly $35,000 per year cost for those living on-site plus $5,000-$11,000 in general public costs, versus costs of as much as $65,000 spent per person in the community at large.

For general residents out in the Austin area, De Santis also said that funding typically goes toward things like crisis response, criminalization and short-term shelter. At MLF's property, she said residents are more often accessing preventative care, justice and recovery programs, wraparound services, and addiction support, all while maintaining a sense of community and dignity that may not be possible on the streets.Community First! is located on a bus route and can help residents connect with off-site job opportunities. Kevin Shepherd, MLF president and chief operating officer, said they also have opportunities to earn "dignified income" on-site by working the grounds, managing properties and caring for neighbors. Last year, almost 200 residents participated and made $1.2 million through the program.

MLF highlighted several other statistics pointing to positive outcomes from residency at Community First! Village. Among those were

• A higher life expectancy—now 61 years old—than the 48-year-old average age of death for homeless people in Travis County
• Widespread decreases in alcohol and drug usage after move-in
• A roughly 80% rate of residents successfully settling and continuing to live in the village
• Nearly universal reports of "feeling hopeful" about the community

Put in perspective

Graham says Community First! Village was the first development of its kind in the United States, and that dozens of replicate operations are now active nationwide. He also said people from around the country frequently travel to town for MLF to learn about the property and how to develop their own projects.

“There’s no doubt about it, we are the godfather of this movement, and it all happened right here in ATX," he said.Shepherd said the village environment is a "vortex" that's drawn him and dozens of others who weren't formerly homeless. He and his wife have lived there on a permanent basis for years after moving in part-time in the 2010s.

“Life here in the village is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced in any other neighborhood. It’s vibrant; people are always out and about, they’re saying hello, they’re stopping to chat. You better not be in a hurry when you’re walking around," he said.

Travis County Judge Andy Brown highlighted local government's role in funding MLF's expansion, with about $35 million of the county's federal relief dollars dedicated to the project. He also said Community First! continues to draw attention from other county government officials across the country.

"The No. 1 thing they ask me about is the tiny homes in Travis County," he said.

Mayor Kirk Watson called the village "the most talked-about neighborhood in all of Austin" given the focus on offering residents a sense of belonging.

"It's a thriving neighborhood, it’s a breathing neighborhood, it’s a healing neighborhood, and it brings dignity back into the lives of people who have experienced homelessness," he said.

In other news

In addition to the Hog Eye Road site, MLF is also expanding in Southeast Austin where the organization is developing a new neighborhood alongside the Burleson Studios supportive housing complex from nonprofit Foundation Communities. Once completed, there'll be almost 2,000 microhomes across all Community First! Village properties.The village's future phase will bring 76 acres of residential and community space off Burleson Road next to the 80,000-square-foot apartment project. Foundation Communities is leasing the land from MLF and expects to open the 104 low-income studio units by fall 2026.

That development will focus on people exiting or at risk of homelessness, with apartments reserved for people earning up to 30%-50% of the local median family income that's now $133,800 for a four-person household. Residents will have fitness, laundry, TV and computer rooms; a food pantry; and on-site supportive services as well as access to resources at the surrounding Community First! Village property.