Submitted Report
At the recent Pecan Street Festival in Austin, more than $2,000 worth of crafts sold to festival goers had a special meaning for the craft makers who created them – independence.
Students from Texas State University, including a Hays High graduate, lent a hand in making that happen.
Amanda Lamb, a senior at Texas State studying public relations, was among a group of students in Enactus, the world’s largest university-based free enterprise organization, who assisted at the event in a joint project with Mobile Loaves and Fishes (MLF), a mobile ministry program with a 25-year history in Austin.
| (Courtesy photos) |
She and fellow club members manned the booth, helping to sell the hand-made wooden crafts, furniture, bird houses and other items.
The project was an opportunity for homeless residents to create something with their own hands, then sell the item and earn a living. Homeless individuals made wooden swings and birdhouses, among other items. The profits allow craft makers the chance to regain dignity and pay rent if they can find a hotel or other housing.
With high housing prices in Austin, Mobile Loaves and Fishes developed the concept for Community First!, a 27-acre master planned community for the homeless. The development will break ground in 2014.
A mix of refurbished RVs, canvas sided homes and micro houses will be inside the development. Each will rent for a low price, generally less than $200 a month. The development will house about 200 people and will also offer a medical facility with volunteer doctors, dentists and therapists. Other planned amenities include a garden, chickens and a workshop.
The micro houses are slightly larger than the average cubical. Each contains furniture made by formally homeless individuals.
