Community First! Village featured in Austin Home Magazine

Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Community First! Village in Austin Adds Five New Buildings

Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Community First! Village enlists Studio8 to design expansion of 51 acres, 43,800 square feet and five buildings.

By Sammy Bates

Published: October 20, 2026

One of the most revered non-profits in town has stretched its reach even further. Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Community First! Village platform is a transformative residential program that provides affordable, permanent housing and support for the chronically homeless. By moving men and women off the streets into a safe community with hundreds of volunteers, it has become one of the largest and most successful relationally focused models in the country. Designed by Studio8, the project’s latest expansion includes a “downtown”, expanding on the organization’s original model of building an inclusive and vibrant community rooted in beauty, flexibility and stewardship.

Set across from the established campus, The Hog Eye Road expansion comprises 51 acres and a collection of five buildings totaling 43,800 square feet. The additions include a new headquarters building, neighbor services building, welcome center, a small market, and Goodness Hall, and a multipurpose space for events, meetings and volunteer training, each of which further the mission of fostering a sense of belonging through welcoming community hubs.

The pre-engineered metal buildings take advantage of views to the east while establishing a comfortable public campus-within-a-campus environment. Though the grounds consistently see several volunteers and frequent tours, certain sections are reserved specifically for neighbors to ensure privacy and dignity.

Drawn from recognizable Texas agrarian forms, the buildings recall barns and utility buildings while incorporating deep canopies that create covered porches, capture breeze and protect outdoor spaces. Studio8’s community bath house prototypes and small pavilion kitchens provide for neighbors without their own facilities while fostering moments of connection through the basic acts of hygiene and cooking.

Vibrant accent colors energize the simple buildings, with the welcome center’s bright red form serving as a clear way-finding marker. The neighbor services building features the community’s first public mural, with oversized sunflowers and bluebonnets painted by local artist and neighbor Jason Cole Redman. Next door, the staff and volunteer-run market showcases neighbors’ crafts and work alongside everyday goods.

Trauma-informed design was an integral consideration embedded into the project by the Mobile Loaves & Fishes team from the start. Calm circulation and abundant outdoor connection fosters a feeling of openness that lowers anxiety levels and reduces the institutional character. The central staircase acts as a sunlit, second-floor break room popular with staff. Materials low in maintenance and high in durability were selected in careful consideration of the organization’s resources.

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