Tiny Homes for Austin’s Homeless
CHARLIE CLICK WAS homeless and living in his car in Austin, Texas, when a stranger in a white truck offered him a sandwich and a fresh pair of socks. When he was in his late 50s, Click had lost his home and most of his possessions after a yearslong spiral that included four prison terms and two cancer diagnoses. The ordeal had left Click alone and dependent on pills and alcohol to cope, but the stranger’s kindness started a chain of events that would reverse the course of his life.
The Good Samaritan had been dispatched by Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a faith-based charity that delivers food to needy Austin residents. The organization had also constructed a village nearby for homeless people. Urged on by the socks-and-food-delivering stranger, Click applied for residency and was accepted. He drove the vehicle where he had been sleeping to Community First! Village, a neighborhood with neat rows of micro-homes and R.V.s situated on the outskirts of town, northeast of central Austin. Freshly paved roads and tree-covered walking paths passed by wooden porch swings, a community center, and gardens bursting with produce. There was a barbershop, an art studio, a chapel, and an outdoor movie theater. Click moved into a single-room cottage with canvas walls, essentially a glorified tent—“the cheapest thing going,” he says—and found work on-site. After years of wandering, he was home.
“I’m in a place where I can not only be secure, but I can be secure until I die,” Click recalls thinking. “I can’t describe when that feeling hit me—‘wow, I don’t have to go anywhere.’”
Set on a 51-acre parcel of land eight miles from the Texas State Capitol, Community First! Village opened its doors in late 2015 and has become one of the nation’s most renowned private programs for alleviating homelessness. The property houses more than 180 formerly homeless people in a tightknit neighborhood. Each residence has a porch facing a public space that encourages interaction with neighbors, a crucial design feature for a vulnerable population recovering from years of isolation.
