MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — Waco’s homeless population increased 40 people from 2022 to 2023 — a 2022 study found the City of Waco was in need of 5,000 affordable housing units. For years community leaders have worked to decrease those numbers. Now with a similar idea in Austin, some city and donor money, nonprofit Mission Waco is creating affordable housing for 300 unhoused people in McLennan County.
- Non-profit, Mission Waco teamed up with the city to buy 68 acres of land to create a community for Waco’s increasing homeless population
- The community will be known as Creekside Village
- Creekside Village will be a neighborhood where people who have been homeless in McLennan County for at least one year will be able to apply to live
- 40 of those tiny homes will go to missionals — people who aren’t homeless but are choosing to live with those who are
- There will be three types of homes with rent ranging from $400 to 700
- Some will have a full kitchen and bath while others won’t, but there will be a community kitchen and bathrooms
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“Housing alone is never going to solve homelessness for an individual, but we believe that community will,” said Executive Director of Mission Waco, John Calaway.
Local nonprofit, Mission Waco teamed up with the city to buy 68 acres of land to create a community for Waco’s increasing homeless population.
“It should not become a housing development for folks outside McLennan county, This is for our folks who have been on the streets,” said John Calaway.
It’ll be known as Creekside Village. A neighborhood where people who have been homeless in McLennan County for at least one year will be able to apply to live.
About 40 of those tiny homes will go to missionals — people who aren’t homeless but are choosing to live with those who are.
“The big piece of what missional residents will be doing is simply building relationships with our friends, because then they’re going to take your advice and they’re going to be willing to walk with you through life,” said Megan Yingst-Coats.
People living on the streets pulls at Megan Yingst-Coats heart strings — her brother experienced homelessness and substance abuse years ago, which is why she and her husband hope to be one of the few walking alongside our struggling neighbors.
“That’s really exciting for us, to live next door to these people and really, you know, have a meal with them, and that’s what community is, just doing life together,” said Megan Yingst-Coats.
There will be three types of homes with rent ranging from $400 to 700 — some will have a full kitchen and bath while others won’t, but there will be a community kitchen and bathrooms, Yingst-Coats says that’s what this whole project is about — it’s not just a house, or a home, it’s a community.
“If you take somebody who’s been chronically homeless and put them in a house who have isolated already, then they may stay isolated, but by designing the village the way we have, it really will bring them out of their home and into the community, and that’s where we want them to be,” said Mehan Yingst-Coats.
Mission Waco hopes to have some people moved into the tiny homes by October 2025.
