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Mail checks to our secure bank lockbox:
Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Inc.
P. O. Box 224451
Dallas, TX 75222-4451
If you want to drop off cash or checks, our physical address is still:
Mobile Loaves & Fishes
9301 Hog Eye Rd, Ste 950
Austin, TX 78724
- Living in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or an emergency shelter for at least one year (or four episodes within the past three years) and having at least one disability.
- Residing in an institutional care facility, including a jail or substance abuse or mental health treatment facility, hospital, or other similar facility, for fewer than 90 days if all of the criteria in paragraph (a) are met before entering that facility.
- Couch surfing does not count towards your homeless history.
The Community First! model is built on the foundation of Genesis 2:15 – “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it.”
With Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Truck Ministry, we allow the broader community to move throughout areas of the metaphorical garden that they normally would never have found themselves in—street corners, homeless camps, alley ways, shelters, etc. In doing so, volunteers are able to use food as a conduit for connecting human to human, heart to heart and building relationships with the homeless men and women who they encounter on the streets.
Through such interactions with our homeless friends over the past two decades, Mobile Loaves & Fishes has come to the understanding that the single greatest cause of homelessness is a profound, catastrophic loss of family. It’s from this understanding that our vision emerged of building Community First! Village to welcome home individuals considered outcasts who had been despised and pushed to the fringe of society.
Once settled, it is inherent in humans to desire to be purposeful. It is our goal to mine that purpose in each individual, which we do through our Community Works program.
It’s all about relationships. Mobile Loaves & Fishes desires to empower the community around us into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. We achieve this vision through Community First! Village by taking a relational approach for connecting with our homeless brothers and sisters, instead of a transactional approach. When we bring an individual into community with others, we truly begin to make a sustainable impact on their lives.
Mobile Loaves & Fishes believes that the single greatest cause of homelessness is a profound, catastrophic loss of family. That’s why our focus at Community First! Village is to do more than just provide adequate housing. We have developed a community with supportive services and amenities to help address an individual’s relational needs at a fraction of the cost of traditional housing initiatives. We seek to empower our residents to build relationships with others, and to experience healing and restoration as part of engaging with a broader community.
The idea behind Community First! Village simply began with one person in one RV. In 2004, Mobile Loaves & Fishes purchased our first gently used RV with a goal of lifting one person off the streets of Austin and enabling them to live in that RV. This was the advent of our Community First! program, and in the years that followed we lifted up more than 100 individuals from the streets and moved them into RV homes in different RV communities in the Austin area. It was during this time that we also began to brainstorm the idea of developing our own “RV park on steroids” to provide affordable, permanent housing as well as a supportive community for our homeless neighbors who were living on the streets. We began moving our first residents into Community First! Village in December 2015.
Community First! Village is currently a 51-acre master planned community, designed specifically for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness. As of March 2024, more than 370 formerly homeless individuals are living in the Village. Once complete and at full capacity, Phases 1 & 2 of Community First! Village will be home to nearly 500 formerly homeless men and women.
In April of 2021, Mobile Loaves & Fishes announced its largest expansion yet which will make room for 1,400 more homes and 127 additional acres.
Phase 1 of Community First! Village offers an innovative mix of housing options, including micro-homes, canvas-sided cottages, RVs and park model RVs. Phase I of the development includes 120 micro-homes, 100 RVs and 20 canvas-sided cottages.
Phase 2 of the Village offers 110 RVs and park model RVs and 200 micro-homes, and also several 3D-printed homes. Once complete, Phases 1 & 2 of the Village provide homes for nearly 500 men and women who have been living on the streets of Austin.
To be eligible to live in Community First! Village, an individual must be chronically homeless as defined in the City of Austin’s Action Plan to End Homelessness:
The definition of chronic homelessness:
- Living in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or an emergency shelter for at least one year (or four episodes within the past three years) and having at least one disability.
- Residing in an institutional care facility, including a jail or substance abuse or mental health treatment facility, hospital, or other similar facility, for fewer than 90 days if all of the criteria in paragraph (a) are met before entering that facility.
- Couch surfing does not count towards your homeless history.
All potential Community First! Village residents are required to complete the Coordinated Assessment, be fingerprinted and agree to a criminal background check processed by the FBI. To ensure that Community First! is addressing the problem of chronic homelessness in Austin, we will require potential residents to demonstrate proof of homeless dwelling for at least one year within the Austin metropolitan area. Here are more details on How to Apply for a Home at Community First! Village.
Please see our ‘How to Apply for a Home’ page for a description and more details on the process.
Community First! Village has been developed with an approach similar to the Housing First model, which believes an individual must first be adequately housed before important lifesaving services such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation would be effective. To go through rehab or receive other vital services only to be released back onto the streets is counterproductive. Mobile Loaves & Fishes has taken this approach a step further by emphasizing community and relationships in all that we do.
At Community First! Village, we are providing more than just adequate housing. We are developing a community with revolutionary services and attention to an individual’s relational needs at a fraction of the cost of traditional housing initiatives. The emphasis at Community First! Village is on dignity, love, respect, abundance and acceptance. It is based on Scripture’s meaning of shalom, which describes a human at peace in all relationships—with God, oneself, other people and the natural world.
Please remember that the possession and distribution of controlled substances is against the law. We expect everyone living in Community First! Village to abide by the law.
There is a broad range of services available on-site to the residents of Community First! Village, including:
- Full-time behavioral health case managers through Integral Care.
- Primary healthcare services provided by CommUnityCare Health Centers.
- Service coordination, money management and case management provided by Family Eldercare.
- Spaces and platforms where neighbors can build relationships, connect with their community, address conflict, repair harm and heal from relational harms provided by Life Anew.
- Addiction recovery and support services provided by Communities for Recovery.
- Dignified income opportunities through Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Community Works program.
- Regular farmers market to provide residents with healthy, nutritious and free vegetables harvested from the Village’s many gardens.
- Help navigating healthcare needs (e.g., questions about health insurance, mobility aids, medical appointments, coordinating transportation to medical appointments and more) provided by our Neighbor Care team.
There is a spiritual life within Community First! Village, but no requirement to participate. Although Mobile Loaves & Fishes is a Christian faith-based organization, our first priority is the dignity of the human person. Additionally, we have made a commitment as part of our privilege of having tax exempt status to not discriminate against anyone. We have a deep abiding respect for all faiths and welcome all individuals into our community—both Community First! Village residents, and those who wish to volunteer or serve the residents living in our community.
Community First! Village is located in northeast Travis County, not too far from the Travis County Exposition Center. The property is roughly eight miles from downtown Austin and is accessible by public transportation. The address for Community First! Village is: 9301 Hog Eye Rd. Austin, Texas 78724.
Capital Metro Bus Route 237 serves Community First! Village and the surrounding area between 7:00am and 10:00pm. The bus arrives and departs the Village on the hour during that time frame. The 237 bus line changes to the number 6 bus line as it heads into downtown, and vice versa when the bus is returning to the Village. Here is a link to the Cap Metro Schedule Page for the 237 route.
No, the opening of Community First! Village has not resulted in Austin becoming a magnet to the chronically homeless population. It has, however, helped position Austin as a leader nationally in terms of what is possible when a community comes together to address an issue as serious as homelessness. We desire to see Community First! Village become an example across the country of how to innovatively address homelessness, and we offer quarterly symposia to help educate and empower other individuals who are interested in bringing a similar vision to their own communities.
Worth noting, we do require Community First! Village residents to demonstrate proof of homeless dwelling for at least one year within the Austin metropolitan area. This is to help assure that Community First! Village accomplishes its goal of addressing Austin’s problem of chronic homelessness.
Individuals living in Community First! Village are required to follow three primary community covenants. Residents must:
- Pay rent on time.
- Abide by civil law.
- Follow the rules of the community itself (similar to a homeowners association for a neighborhood).
Yes, like any successful real estate housing development, there are full-time on-site property managers at Community First! Village. We also have full-time maintenance staff on-site at the property.
We offer public tours of Community First! Village on select Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays each month. You can view available dates and sign up for a tour here.
Please note that if you are a prospective resident wanting to live in Community First! Village, the public tours are not the ones designed specifically for you. Interested Resident Tours happen on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month at 10:00am. See more details on our Apply for a Home page.
Start by perusing the Mobile Loaves & Fishes website. More about Community First! Village can be found here. You should also check out our ‘In the News’ page for a listing of stories about the Village. More than anything, we encourage you to attend one of our symposiums held throughout the year to learn more about our unique “Community First!” approach and how you can bring a similar vision to your own community. More information about our symposiums can be found here on our website: Symposium for Goodness’ Sake.
Here are some of our favorite books that you’ll find on the bookshelves of the Mobile Loaves & Fishes team:
A Spirituality of Fundraising
Henri Nouwen (Upper Room, 2011)
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
Henri Nouwen (Image Books, 1994)
Can You Drink the Cup?
Henri Nouwen (Ave Maria Press, 2006)
Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement
Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh (Eerdmans, 2008)
Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears
Mark Batterson (Zondervan, 2011)
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition
Christine Pohl (Eerdmans, 1999)
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,
Chapter 13: Batman’s Bad Call, pp. 168-186
Johann Hari (Bloomsbury, 2015)
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
Gregory Boyle (Free Press, 2011)
Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
Gregory Boyle (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Community and Growth
Jean Vanier (Paulist Press, 1979)
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005)
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t
Jim Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001)
Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in the Quarter
Jerry E. Stahan (Broadway Books, 1999)
Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor
Gary Smith (Loyola, 2002)
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek (Portfolio, 2011)
The Leadership Challenge
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass, 2007)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 2012)
The Advantage
Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 2012)
The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential
John C. Maxwell (Center Street, 2013)
Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership
Gene Wilkes (Tyndale, 1998)
Mobile Loaves & Fishes has many volunteer opportunities and is grateful for your willingness to serve. We encourage you to visit our volunteer page to explore available opportunities.
We love volunteer groups! If your group has 5 or more people, please visit our Group Serve Days page to make arrangements or contact MLF’s volunteer team at serve@mlf.org.
At this time, we aren’t onboarding any new Eagle Scout projects. Once we’re accepting new Eagle Scouts, we would love for you to reach back out to begin the process. The best thing to do would be to keep an eye on our volunteer website to see when our Eagle Scout tour page is back up, or you can reach out to scouts@mlf.org.
Volunteers are the backbone of Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ food truck ministry. Our truck runs operate out of different locations based on our partnerships with supporting truck communities. Specific opportunities vary from one MLF truck community to another. Please see our Truck Ministry volunteer page for next steps on getting plugged in.
Yes, your donation is tax deductible. Mobile Loaves & Fishes is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
You bet! We refer to our recurring donors as Everyday Angels. Supporters who are Everyday Angels provide monthly gifts that enable Mobile Loaves & Fishes to provide ongoing support for Community First! Village and for our homeless friends through the Truck Ministry. You can start your monthly donation at mlf.org/everyday-angels.
Absolutely! Leading a crowdfunding campaign is a great way to support Mobile Loaves & Fishes – and much appreciated! Please click here to fill out a fundraising page request form, and we’ll get back to you with next steps. We are grateful for your support!
You can select Greatest Need or Community First! Village on the dropdown menu on our online donation form. Donations to specific truck communities can be made on the MLF Truck Ministry donation page where you can select your preferred community in the dropdown menu. If you prefer to give through mail with a personal check or through your charitable giving account, simply indicate the community or program in the memo line.
Mail checks to our secure bank lockbox:
Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Inc.
P. O. Box 224451
Dallas, Texas 75222-4451
If you want to drop off cash or checks, our physical address is still:
Mobile Loaves & Fishes
9301 Hog Eye Rd, Ste 950
Austin, TX 78724
On MLF’s online donation form, please check “Dedicate my donation in honor or in memory of someone” and complete the information. E-cards will be sent immediately and postal cards are sent within a couple weeks.
We are grateful to individuals, organizations and businesses that hold fundraising events benefiting Mobile Loaves & Fishes. Funds raised during such events enable MLF to provide food, clothing and promote dignity to our homeless brothers and sisters in need. If you are interested in holding your own fundraising event, please click here to read our fundraising guidelines and fill out an Event Application. An authorized MLF representative must approve your Event Application before publishing the name or logo of Mobile Loaves & Fishes or promoting the event.
To make an in-kind donation of goods or services, please see our current list of needs on our Turn A House Into A Home Please email donate@mlf.org with any questions
Donations made to Mobile Loaves & Fishes are non-refundable. Please contact us at 512.328.7299 within 30 days from the date of your donation if you identify an error in the amount of payment or to report unauthorized usage of your credit or debit card.
When making an online donation, please be sure that you have filled out ALL REQUIRED FIELDS on the donation form. Required fields are denoted with an asterisk (*). Please also include your email address, as this will allow us to send you a receipt for your donation. If you have filled out all the fields and are still having trouble submitting the donation form, please contact us at donate@mlf.org so we can further assist you.
Please contact Mobile Loaves & Fishes at donate@mlf.org or 512.328.7299 to update your payment information. Please DO NOT send your credit card or bank information to MLF via email. If you are an Everyday Angel, you can make edits to your account by clicking on ‘Manage your Account’ on the bottom of your last receipt.
You can join the email list for Mobile Loaves & Fishes by signing up here.
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