MIDLAND, Texas — Thanks to the Field's Edge, what is now a construction site will soon be a place nine people will call home-along with CEO John-Mark Echols and his family.
These soon to be tiny houses will give people that might not have had a house a place to call home.
"What it looks like to live out here in this supportive community is to have people around you that care about you, it's a forced family and that's really the main thing we're about at The Field's Edge is relationships," said Echols. "It's what we feel really lifts someone out of homelessness and into community, it's not the house that solves their homelessness but it's the relationship that does."
The houses will be in a circular formation, to promote that sense of community.
"The homes face each other, they're all in a circle, there's lots of opportunities to interact with your neighbors and it's really a community type of environment out here to promote those relationships to form," said Echols.
You could say the soon to be residents are excited.
"One guy that's going to be moving in in June, one of our first guys, he wants to live in the house next door to mine, he came out here a couple weeks ago to see the place and it was super exciting to just see his eyes light up and to experience his excitement of almost getting to come home soon," said Echols.
Home to a place where the Echols families hopes love and acceptance will flourish.
"Fundamentally we believe that all people, the homeless included are created in the image of God and that means that they have value and dignity and that we should care for them," Echols said. "So really the stigma of homelessness is just that people have experienced some kind of trauma in their life and they've had no community, no relationship to help them overcome that."
None of it could've been done without the kind folks of West Texas.
"We've been really supported by our community, I think in us communicating the need and helping educate our city we've had a tremendous about of support and encouragement to get this project done and a lot of people that want to get involved, and so we're really thankful for that," said Echols.
If you would like to learn more about The Field's Edge, click the link. You can also donate to other organizations with Permian Basin Gives at their website.