In the News ... "The Field's Edge celebrates grand opening"

MRT Photo by Tim Fischer

• Tiny house project in southwest Midland to be inhabited by some of Midland’s homeless population

By Ben Shaffer, Reporterr
• Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - The Field's Edge, a nonprofit organization, delivered on its motto to “cultivate home” by building a group of tiny houses to be inhabited by some of Midland’s homeless population.

The grand opening of “The Village” was at 6701 Cholla road in southwest Midland on Thursday. It was the culmination of many years of research and construction.

The Field’s Edge Founder and Chief Executive Officer John-Mark Echols first heard about a similar encampment for the homeless in Austin while doing volunteer work around seven or eight years ago.

“We went there to check it out and ended up going to live there for about four months. We trained and came back to replicate it since the middle of 2017,” he said.

There are 10 homes -- nine tiny homes and one home where Echols and his family will move in to -- at the close-quartered neighborhood. Chief Operating Officer Benjamin Harvey says expansion is certainly in the minds of The Field’s Edge leadership.

“Our five-to-10-year plan is to have 10 pods; each pod will have 10 homes. At the end we’ll have 90 tiny homes and 10 missional homes,” he said.

Echols, a devote Christian, explained how his faith has driven him to pioneer this life-changing project.

“I encountered the homeless and knew they were my neighbors and that I needed to serve them; I wanted to serve them. Then, the Lord just kept putting things in front of my wife and I, just small steps of obedience and next thing we knew were selling our house and moving into a travel-trailer with our 18-month-old daughter and going off to build a tiny home community,” he said.

The single-occupant homes will include a bed, sitting area, microwave, coffee pot, sink, air conditioner and heater with a separate area with a kitchen and bathing resources, according to Echols.

“The reason for that is we want to facilitate interaction and community. At the root of homelessness is the fact that someone has been through something traumatic and had no support and so the whole idea around this community is that it’s about rebuilding those relationships,” he said.

The homes all face each other and have front porches to create opportunities for new neighbors to socialize.

Though Echols has created this community, he had a simple explanation for why other areas of the country haven’t.

“It’s really hard,” he said. “The most challenging aspect is land and casting the vision in a community. A big part of the work is education in the community and making people realize it’s not as simple as they think.”

Echols does believe that more areas who have the benefit of vast land will begin to investigate similar projects for those in need.

During his brief speech, Echols thanked the community for the support they’ve shown him and his family over the six-year journey of turning his vision into reality ...

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