Today, I had the opportunity to visit a small village on the outskirts of Austin, called Community First. It is a community of tiny houses built for the homeless. I went for a "House Blessing.” Four homeless people were moving in, each into their own one room home. The ceremony was to welcome each to the village and to their home. Each was introduced and given a basket of gifts, including a beautiful quilt made by the other villagers. Each was applauded and hugged and made welcome to the village. Over and over different members of the group said to each new resident, “Welcome Home.” When the ceremony was over, a group escorted each new resident to their new home.
I went to her new home with Tracy, a middle-aged woman who had been on the streets for 35 years, most of that time on alcohol and drugs. She had been clean for two years and was thus eligible for one of the tiny homes. She showed us with pride the small cupboard where she had placed her few possessions in her tent home. She had electricity, a small microwave, and refrigerator so she could cook for herself. Her home was furnished with a single bed, a small table with two chairs and a small divan. She had tears of happiness in her eyes as she showed off her home to us.
The village is a 27-acre planned community with a medical facility, hospice care, church, community garden, recreation area, walking trails, chickens, goats, even wifi. The homes are indeed small, many no more than 150 sq ft, but most residents still manage to have a porch with chairs so they can sit and talk with a neighbor. You can learn much more about Community First here. It is a part of a growing
movement across the country to treat the homeless as valuable people who need help to rebuild their lives. That starts with having the security of a place where they can say they live – an address. But the founders of the village know that is not enough, it is equally important to have community, thus the name of the village, Community First.
The homeless, like all of us, need to be a part of a community. Which means there are people who care that you are there and welcome you, who see you as valuable and worth knowing. At Community First , residents have the opportunity, not just to receive, but to also contribute, even if it is just helping to hoe the garden or gather the eggs. They can participate in welcoming others, and caring for those that are sick or disabled. At Community First they have support to find a job, deal with health problems, or spiritual needs.
I marveled at how different Community First is from a homeless shelter, where a person has a cot for the night but must be back on
the street, carrying all their possessions, in the morning. And different from being placed in an apartment complex, where the new resident knows no one and is fully aware that others in the neighborhood wish they were housed somewhere else. The founders of Community First designed the village on the principle that if a homeless person has a place to call their own, the support of a community and the sense that they are worthwhile as an individual, they can begin to re-build their lives.
My visit to Community First caused me to reflect on our organizations and that we under estimate the need for and value of community.
Organizations are too often transactional, seeing employees as disposable, and discounting the need we all have for being valued as
human beings. And as individuals within those organizations, we sometimes forget that we are all on a journey that at times is very difficult. In designing organizations, we have much to learn from Community First. There are some organizations that are leading the way, in creating a sense of community, Morning Star, Menlo Innovations, Lakeland Hospital, Kessels and Smit. You could probably name others. Hopefully it is starting to happen, one organization at a time.