Created by Mobile Loaves & Fishes, the Community First! model has proven to be effective in Austin, TX in our efforts to mitigate the pandemic of homelessness. We also have seen our model work for other organizations across the country to address homelessness in their respective communities. We invite those who are called and committed to a new vision for their community to learn more and join the Community First! movement to help transform homelessness in our country!
Breaking Down the Community First! Model
Since 1998, MLF has been going out onto the streets of Austin to not only serve meals, but to build relationships with our homeless neighbors and to learn who they are and what they truly need. These connections gave rise to the development of our nationally-recognized Community First! Village, which was designed specifically for men and women who are transitioning out of chronic homelessness.
Our Mission, Vision & Values are Foundational To What We Do
More fundamentally than providing homes to men and women who are coming up off the streets, our desire is to empower communities into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. This vision guides every aspect of our decisions, design and programming at Community First! Village. Read more about MLF’s vision and mission.
Community First! Culture: The Eight Marks of Home
MLF has long used the eight marks of home described in Beyond Homelessness to help better understand, embrace and apply the meaning of home. These eight marks of home illustrate that home is more than just four walls, a bed and a roof over one’s head. Home is a place where individuals experience permanence, where they can belong and where they encounter other benefits that provide a true life-filling experience. When we welcome people “home,” we aim beyond survival and housing to a more comprehensive response to the problem of homelessness. The effectiveness of the Community First! approach stems from a deep understanding and intentional implementation of the eight marks of home within our culture. Our goal is to bring these qualities to life so that anyone who interacts with us can more deeply understand and experience what it truly means to build community and be home.
Dignity of Choice, Social Connectedness & Forged Family
Mobile Loaves & Fishes prioritizes giving neighbors choice from the time when they select their unit in Community First! Village and help decide how they want it to be decorated when they move in. We don’t do this because choice is an evidence-based tool to improve client outcomes; we do it because we believe that all members of the human family are equal in dignity, no matter how marginalized or traumatized. Choice offers the restoration of dignity and creates the possibility of rebuilding lives and relationships.
We believe that by virtue of being created by God in His image, we are all called to live in community and relationship with Him through each other. These values animate MLF’s ongoing focus on fostering social connectedness at Community First! Village and building a forged family around our neighbors. Importantly, it isn’t just our neighbors who yearn for community. MLF’s volunteers, staff, donors and the broader community who get involved also benefit from participating in reintegrating community into the lives of our neighbors. An individual can’t forge family in a one-way act of charity, but only by bringing one’s whole self into relationship with others.
There are few who exemplify this deep commitment to forging family in Community First! Village more than our Missional Neighbors. These are men and women who live in the Village, though having never experienced homelessness themselves, and participate relationally in the community by being a good neighbor to those around them. Missionals provide so much of the thread that weaves Community First! Village together that it’s nearly impossible to imagine this place without them. And yet if you asked any Missional why they’ve decided to sacrifice so much in order to be of service to the Village, they are likely to correct your misconception and tell you that for all they give to the community, they are the ones who receive much more from being in relationship with neighbors.
This forged family is a key part of the Community First! model. We value neighbors’ individual dignity, and at the same time we also put the community first when considering any issue specific to one individual neighbor. This dynamic of prioritizing the community while considering the individual who belongs to the community is similar to the dynamics of a family, and stands in contrast to the Housing First model, which primarily considers and serves individuals, who decide how and in what ways they’re going to engage in community.
A Partnership-Based Model For Resources & Funding
Community First! Village is built on the strength of relationships. This unprecedented collaborative effort has empowered tens of thousands of volunteers, donors, business leaders, community organizations and churches to share their skills and gifts with the formerly homeless men and women who call the Village home. In addition to the myriad of services available within the Village, MLF has collaborated with local partners to make their services accessible to our neighbors. This collaboration includes providing resources for case management, counseling, spiritual direction, skills training, representative payee services and many other resources. MLF has always been primarily privately funded thanks to the strength of these relationships. It takes a community to build community!
Volunteers, partners and other community members are an integral part of the community we’ve built. We do more than utilizing our community partnerships only for transactional services. In accordance with MLF’s vision, it’s our desire that volunteers’ and partners’ lives will be enriched through their involvement with our community.
Who We Serve
To be eligible to live in Community First! Village, an individual must be chronically homeless. Additionally, they must prove homeless dwelling for at least one year within the Austin metropolitan area. (Learn more in our FAQs.)
Before Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a master planned community to provide permanent housing with supportive services to serve those who have experienced chronic homelessness never existed. MLF brought this innovation to life, and now it is being replicated across the country.
Those replicating our Community First! approach in other areas might serve different populations depending on the unique challenges of their respective communities. It’s also important to hear and learn directly from those experiencing homelessness in different communities to best understand their unique struggles, desires and needs. what those in need in your community say in their own words about their struggles, desires and needs. Innovation must also be at the heart of a Community First! approach.
Replication FAQs
If you want to use verbiage from our website, we ask that you cite us. You are welcome to provide a hyperlink to MLF.org. Plagiarizing us is unethical. On the other hand, explaining what about MLF/CFV inspires you is a better way to communicate your own vision and the unique context of your organization. Pictures taken at the CFV should also be cited. It can create confusion and erode trust if what you eventually develop on your property is not the same as the pictures from the you included from CFV.
Due to consideration of our neighbors’ privacy and the overall operations of the Village, this is prohibited unless given express permission by the Communications Team. You can find existing press coverage & downloadable logos here.
MLF’s Community First! Model is not a franchise model. Inherent to the Community First! Model is enrolling various members, businesses, entities, organizations to contribute towards your local expression of Community First! Local buy-in and investment into your replication of Community First! is necessary to get launched and will help it to continue to operate to mitigate homelessness in your city. By attending the Symposium for Goodness’ Sake and learning more about our fundraising, volunteer & partnership development approaches through our seminars and workshops, you will learn how to cast vision and enroll stakeholders in your city to mitigate and transform homelessness through putting Community First!
If you want some information on a one-off basis, we recommend that you make use of our virtual seminars. If you’d like to see the Village firsthand but you are still gathering information about our model or don’t have a lot of time, make use of the Replication Tours. Otherwise, if you’re really fired up about replicating the CF Model, we do recommend that you attend a Symposium, which will also be a prerequisite for applying to participate in additional events on the Replication Pathway like the Community First! Transformational Leadership Training & Cohort.
The Vision Catalyst is designed for your organization to sponsor the event for the key stakeholders you want to catch your vision. Typical attendees include state/local government officials and vision enablers — board members, key donors, and leaders of partner organizations.
We are not currently offering on-site stays, but we do have a short list of nearby accommodations!
Interesting and Unique Accommodations Nearby:
- Village Farms (Tiny houses 2 minutes away)
- KOA (Glamping experience with cabins and RVs available, 3 minutes away)
- Airbnb or Vrbo (A variety of nearby spaces from 5-15 minutes away)
We know that many people transitioning out of chronic homelessness struggle with substance use, and we choose to accept people where they’re at and walk with them as they settle into community and pursue recovery. We make mental health care and recovery support services available to our neighbors in partnership with service providers. Any organization aspiring to replicate the Community First! model will need to consider the issues for the vulnerable population they choose to serve and will need to assemble support around them, including a commitment to being in relationship with them as they navigate substance use disorders and recovery.
Above, we described our partnership-based model for resources and funding. For specific details, you can read more about our $150 million capital campaign for Community First! Village expansion. Additionally, we have our latest annual report as well as financial audits and Form 990s dating back to 2000 to read on Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ financials page. Your funding requirements and ability to fundraise will depend on your level of community engagement and local economic factors. To learn more about MLF-specific fundraising philosophy, strategies and tactics, attend the Symposium for Goodness’ Sake and virtual seminars that focus on fund development.
The Community First! approach enables the development of truly affordable housing by using land that’s not bound by restrictive local zoning laws, which helps change the way people think about and interact with the neighbors once the community is built. Strategizing around NIMBYism means developing on land where restrictive zoning laws are either not present, as is the case in all county land in the state of Texas, or where other protections override these laws, such as religious or civil rights protections. Our Community First! approach then works to gain the support of surrounding neighbors as well as the broader community by finding underused spaces and turning them into safe, dignified and beautiful places where everyone can come and live, work and serve alongside one another. The community empowerment involved in our Community First! approach is more fundamental than any one aspect of housing type or site design that we have chosen for Community First! Village. We recommend you start by understanding your local area’s zoning, regulation and best practices for building and site development. Your local architects and builders may be good resources.
Since Community First! Village is designed to provide a place of permanence for men and women who are transitioning out of chronic homelessness, we look to retention rate as a key indicator of how well our formerly homeless neighbors are able to settle into the community and establish the Village as their permanent home.
Mobile Loaves & Fishes has a basic philosophy that housing alone will never solve homelessness, but community will. Most often, we find people on the streets who have a regular, albeit dysfunctional, community, even though they have no houses or shelter to live in. So the fundamental component that human beings need is human interaction; and human interaction occurs within community.
In Texas, there is no discretionary land use authority outside of municipal boundaries. “Not in my backyard” (NIMBY) resistance most often leverages zoning to discriminate against populations of people they would prefer not to have in or near their neighborhoods. Community First! Village sits just outside of the City of Austin city limits; therefore, there is no zoning. We do, however, have to comply with certain state regulations involving density and water quality. If you’re interested in understanding discretionary land use authority or zoning in your community, we recommend consulting with a land use expert specific to your state.
No, Community First! Village provides permanent supportive housing. The intent is that any individual who qualifies can live in the Village permanently, providing they pay their rent, abide by civil law and follow the rules of the community.
Since we began moving neighbors into Community First! Village in December 2015, we have experienced an average retention rate of approximately 85%. (Updated February 2023)
Each potential resident at Community First! Village is required to complete the Coordinated Entry Assessment intake, be fingerprinted and submit to a criminal background check processed by the FBI. Then, on a case-by-case basis, qualified personnel will review the applicant for their compatibility with Community First! Village and the community at large. Registered sex offenders are the only individuals who are strictly prohibited from living in Community First! Village.
One of our goals at Mobile Loaves & Fishes is to transform the way people view the stereotype of individuals who find themselves homeless. After more than two decades of serving and working within the homeless population, we believe the stereotype of chronically homeless individuals as it relates to crime is actually wrong. Chronically homeless individuals are among the most vulnerable and most often are the victims of crime, as opposed to being the perpetrators of crime.
Every neighborhood in any city at any time is susceptible to some level of criminal activity. Neighborhoods can mitigate potential criminal activity through strong vigilance. The very essence of Community First! Village is neighbor looking after neighbor. Crime statistics for the three mile area surrounding Community First! Village show a dramatic contrast to what we experience in our neighborhood. According to the Travis County Sheriff’s office, Community First! Village typically has fewer calls than many apartment complexes of similar size. We are hopeful that our model and vigilance can be transferred to our surrounding neighbors so that they, too, can experience the safety and refuge that our residents enjoy at Community First! Village.
Unfortunately, we don’t currently have the capability to deliver the Symposium online. We think that spending time on-site at Community First! Village is the best way to truly experience the community, and we’ve designed a three-day learning opportunity to help those who are interested in this model to learn more.
We’ve had many individuals attend a Symposium who haven’t yet secured their nonprofit status, and they’ve used a variety of means to raise the funds for the trip to Austin. Some have used GoFundMe or other crowdfunding platforms, while others have reached out to friends and loved ones directly for support. Community First! Village is an $18 million undertaking, and each year we have to raise much of the operating revenue because rent only covers a small portion of the funds needed to care for our neighbors. Thus, the ability to raise funds is an important piece of pursuing our overall vision. We encourage you to look at the Symposium as your first investment in the future of your own community.
learning resources
Our downloadable Discussion Resource Booklet is the perfect start for anyone who wants to engage thoughtfully about the topic of homelessness in their community.
Other Resources:
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How is Community First! Distinct from Housing First?
A Housing First response to chronic homelessness involves providing housing and offering professional services to those experiencing homelessness. Over the years building relationships with our homeless friends and listening to their stories, we’ve come to understand that chronic homelessness exists at the intersection of many broken systems and layers of family trauma — and after these experiences, homelessness itself only adds more layers of trauma. Collectively, this means that homelessness is a complex problem that no single institutional intervention can address. We seek to provide a relational approach that mitigates the trauma of homelessness in ways that transactional approaches alone cannot.
While aspects of the Community First! model have been adapted from the Housing First model, MLF’s underlying beliefs and values extend beyond housing alone to providing what government systems or social services on their own cannot: community.
Go Deeper: Walk With Us
Every city across the country offers unique challenges and opportunities for lifting its homeless into home and empowering communities into a lifestyle of service.
We can’t advise on the specifics of what you’ll face in your own community, and we do want to share what we’ve learned and connect with others who want to explore creating a Community First culture in their town.
Below are some of the resources available to those who participate in the Community First! Replication Pathway:
- Symposium for Goodness’ Sake
- Virtual Seminars
- Vision Catalyst
- Community First Transformational Leadership Training
- Replicator Summit
spotlight on community first! model replicators
Join our Replication Pathway
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