Warning: this episode contains strong language.In Austin, Texas, a local businessman has undertaken one of the nation’s biggest and boldest efforts to confront the crisis of chronic homelessness.Lucy Tompkins, a national reporter for The Times, takes us inside the multimillion-dollar experiment, to understand its promise and peril.Guest: Lucy Tompkins, who reports on national news for The New York Times.Background reading: Can a big village full of tiny homes ease homelessness in Austin?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What is the bold homelessness initiative in Austin?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. In Austin, Texas, a local businessman has undertaken one of the nation's biggest and boldest efforts to confront the crisis of chronic homelessness. Today, Lucy Tompkins takes us inside the multi-million dollar experiment to understand both its promise and its peril. It's Friday, December 6th.
Lucy, thank you for coming to the studio.
Thanks for having me, Michael.
So I want to start by asking you, how did you come to the story of this social experiment that's been happening in Texas?
Yeah, so I write about homelessness, and I think it's fair to say in this topic and in journalism in general, a lot of the stories are very focused on what's going wrong, how intractable this problem is, how it's growing. But part of my job is also to look for examples of where we're making progress.
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Chapter 2: How did Lucy Tompkins discover the Community First Village?
And I moved to Austin a few years ago, and as I started talking to people about homelessness there, I kept hearing about this community on the outskirts of town that people said was a really creative and successful and impressive way of housing some of the most difficult to house people who live on the streets, the chronically homeless.
And just describe that population, what that word really means.
That's a federal definition, and it refers to people who have a disability like mental illness, addiction, or a physical disability and who've lived on the streets for more than a year or repeatedly.
Chapter 3: Who are the chronically homeless and why are they difficult to support?
And it would seem like a population that a lot of major American cities are really having a hard time grappling with.
Yeah, these are the people who, when you think about encampments in L.A., people who are really visibly living on the streets, this is that population. They make up about a third of the total homeless population, but they're the most visible. And over the last few years, communities have really been struggling with how to address growing tent encampments.
And some places have taken a more punitive approach, ticketing people. And usually what people are offered is a temporary shelter bed that doesn't really address this underlying problem of where are people going to live long term.
And that's what made me really interested in this village on the outskirts of Austin called Community First Village, which people had been telling me was tackling this problem in a different and better way than anything else out there. So I was intrigued, but also a little bit skeptical and wanted to go and see it for myself. We're driving out of town.
It's like a 15-minute drive from downtown, and we're definitely getting out of the city.
And what did you see when you first went out there to see it yourself?
It was as surprising as people made it sound. All right, here we are.
Welcome Community First Village. Wow, it's really cute.
Yeah, it is really cute. I've now been back to Community First a handful of times, most recently with Daily producer Olivia Nat. All right, let's go. And when you show up, you really feel like you're kind of entering another realm. It's very quiet. There's not a lot of people out right now. Somebody's planting. It's a peach tree. Good morning. Everybody says morning to each other.
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Chapter 4: What makes Community First Village unique?
Chapter 5: How did Alan Graham's background influence the creation of Community First?
I thought, you know, I could live as a single male or a female in something like this. There's dignity here.
What if he could create a mobile home park specifically for the chronically homeless where everybody has sort of a shared history and where you could sort of foster a sense of community that that could help people remain stable?
So how does he go about trying to take that philosophy and this idea he has of an RV community for the chronically homeless and also then make it a thing, make it a reality?
So he goes to the mayor and proposes an idea. He says, if you give me the land or lease me the land, I'll make this project happen. I'll raise the money. I'll manage it. And we can do it wherever there's space.
And when I was done with that presentation, the mayor looked at me and said, we need four of these in Austin.
The mayor likes the idea. He agrees to it. The city council unanimously approves giving Alan this land. Things are moving forward. But then when the neighbors find out, they, as you might imagine, are not very happy about it.
Good morning. I'm Austin Mayor Will Wynn. It's my privilege to welcome.
So they raise all these objections in neighborhood meetings and before the city council.
I'm here representing the Lincoln Gardens Neighborhood Association. Our opposition to the Herald Court project is not motivated solely by the not in my backyard mentality. They're worried about their property values. They're worried about drug use.
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Chapter 6: What are the community rules at Community First Village?
Chapter 7: How does Community First foster social connections?
Chapter 8: What challenges did Community First Village face in its development?
There's the Steiner Ranch dinner.
Lord, we just thank you, Lord, for your salvation, your great mercy, your great love.
I attended one of these dinners with Olivia, and we watched as dozens of people came out of their homes and lined up.
One beef, one chicken.
And then they all sat down at these communal picnic tables with each other and they were chatting and catching each other up.
So is it okay if I record your voice for... Do you want the sexy one or do you want the serious one?
Tell us your name.
Smiles!
Where were you living before you moved to Community First?
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