By Abby Roper | Broadcast Reporter
Mission Waco’s new development, Creekside Community Village, is finishing up construction as leaders on the project prepare to welcome their “first neighbors” into permanent housing for people transitioning out of homelessness.
Anyone who’s driven down University Parks Drive near Baylor’s campus has likely seen colorful mini houses being built. Those homes are part of the effort by Mission Waco to address homelessness through long-term housing and community creation.
While the village is still under construction, the project leaders said they expect to hand over keys to the first group of residents within the next several weeks.
“Here very soon, in the first quarter of this year, probably toward the end of March, early April, we expect to welcome our first 35 neighbors into our first neighborhood, which is right behind us,” Jonah Fox, chief village officer at Creekside Community Village, said. “And so we’re adding kind of all the finishing touches to that neighborhood, we’re getting homes completed, we’re doing our landscaping, that kind of stuff, and preparing to welcome our first set of neighbors really soon.”
With the help and donations from local nonprofits, churches and private donors, organizers say the vision for the village is becoming a reality. When fully completed, the 68-acre development is projected to have more than 300 homes.
But for Mission Waco, the village is about more than simply providing housing.
“The goal here is to create ‘belongingness.’ I don’t know if that’s actually a word. But belonging, we’re building belonging, that’s what we call this … Where we want people to feel like they have a place to be and a place to create community and friendships,” Jerrod Clark, director of the Meyer Center and Social Services for Mission Waco, said.
The community is designed to encourage engagement, with shared laundry facilities, bathrooms, and common kitchen areas intended to give residents daily opportunities for interaction.
As the village moves closer to welcoming its first residents, leaders say the impact of the project will be felt the moment people move in.
“What’s crazy and just really powerful for me is that, when we look at the reality of this situation, that one night soon someone will go to bed homeless and the next morning they will wake up and it will be move-in day and they will come home and have a permanent place to belong here at Creekside,” Fox said. “And that’s just extremely powerful for us here at Mission Waco at Creekside, but also I think for the city to get behind.”
