Posted on May 12, 2023
Inside the community of ‘tiny homes’ sheltering unhoused Austinites
474
6
2
4
4
0
Austin’s only sanctioned homeless encampment sits on a seven-acre plot of asphalt. It’s tucked away off of Highway 183 near the airport. The State Department of Transportation had been using the space.
“This basically was just a giant TxDOT parking lot where they service vehicles out of,” said Emily Ballard, a social worker at the site, now called the Esperanza Community.
In 2019, the parking lot became Austin’s first and only sanctioned homeless encampment. In the early days people pitched tents and built makeshift shelters. Ballard would end up crawling through these spaces in pants, long sleeves and Doc Martin boots to speak with residents.
“It was a time of survival, but it was also a time where you got to see some really unique skills and survival methods and some really creative architecture,” Ballard said.
Ballard remembers people putting stained glass windows in their shelters and installing electricity using a nearby powerline. Others banded together for security.
“There was this whole group that had created sort of like a mini neighborhood. And they watched out for each other. They had one tent that they kept in the middle of all of all their tents. That was for storage for all of them. So it was harder to get to. They would hang fishing line and objects that make noise in between all the tents like a web, so that if someone was coming around at night, they could hear them,” Ballard said.
“This basically was just a giant TxDOT parking lot where they service vehicles out of,” said Emily Ballard, a social worker at the site, now called the Esperanza Community.
In 2019, the parking lot became Austin’s first and only sanctioned homeless encampment. In the early days people pitched tents and built makeshift shelters. Ballard would end up crawling through these spaces in pants, long sleeves and Doc Martin boots to speak with residents.
“It was a time of survival, but it was also a time where you got to see some really unique skills and survival methods and some really creative architecture,” Ballard said.
Ballard remembers people putting stained glass windows in their shelters and installing electricity using a nearby powerline. Others banded together for security.
“There was this whole group that had created sort of like a mini neighborhood. And they watched out for each other. They had one tent that they kept in the middle of all of all their tents. That was for storage for all of them. So it was harder to get to. They would hang fishing line and objects that make noise in between all the tents like a web, so that if someone was coming around at night, they could hear them,” Ballard said.
Inside the community of ‘tiny homes’ sheltering unhoused Austinites
Posted from the1a.org
Austin
Homeless
Housing
Posted 1 y ago
Responses: 2
1
1
0
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Graham says the village, which is run largely by the residents living there, provides people a chance to earn a living by simultaneously contributing to the community.
Resident D’Juan Davis, who lives at the village and works as a cook, jokes that while it’s not the “real world,” he’s found a real sense of community at Community First. He knows his neighbors. He checks on them regularly. And over the pandemic, he helped lead an effort to feed some of those neighbors who have a hard time getting around because they’re older or disabled. Davis and others prepared at least 7,000 meals in the village’s on-site kitchen and delivered them to neighbors, he said.
“That’s me helping someone who couldn’t help themselves, and that’s what we’re all about is helping one another, truly being neighbors,” he said. “In the real world … you live by people you never get to meet. You (live next to) them for five or six years and you never get to meet. That’s not here. We’re going to come check on you. We’re going to come bring you groceries, and that’s the real life of a community.”"
..."Graham says the village, which is run largely by the residents living there, provides people a chance to earn a living by simultaneously contributing to the community.
Resident D’Juan Davis, who lives at the village and works as a cook, jokes that while it’s not the “real world,” he’s found a real sense of community at Community First. He knows his neighbors. He checks on them regularly. And over the pandemic, he helped lead an effort to feed some of those neighbors who have a hard time getting around because they’re older or disabled. Davis and others prepared at least 7,000 meals in the village’s on-site kitchen and delivered them to neighbors, he said.
“That’s me helping someone who couldn’t help themselves, and that’s what we’re all about is helping one another, truly being neighbors,” he said. “In the real world … you live by people you never get to meet. You (live next to) them for five or six years and you never get to meet. That’s not here. We’re going to come check on you. We’re going to come bring you groceries, and that’s the real life of a community.”"
(1)
(0)
1
1
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google