Community of Hope hopes to buy land in Madison County to combat homelessness

HUNTSVILLE – The Huntsville Community of Hope is working to build a residential community of tiny houses for those in the area who are chronically homeless and encourages the surrounding community to aid through a lifestyle of love and service.

Founder and Chief Goodness Officer of the Huntsville Community of Hope, Mandy Kilgore, said she has been serving those in Huntsville who are homeless since 2012 — she began working to meet needs through providing food and other necessities, then she moved to assist with transportation when camps closed.

“We stepped in to support during and after camp closures, we were helping people move by providing like trucks and trailers so that they can move their contents out in a dignified way, versus being rushed out,” she said. “I’ve probably been engaged with about four to five different camp closures throughout my service to the Huntsville community in the homeless sector. Then we started working with people who had housing vouchers. When they got their housing voucher they would move into an apartment. Again [there was a] disconnect of not having supportive services that could help them move into a specific place and or provide the goods and services they needed.”

Kilgore said most of the people she works with have nothing when they move into an apartment — she and her team work to advocate for the individuals and help them acquire many of the things they need.

“It’s such a disconnect, they’ve got a place to live, but yet they don’t have the means to get the contents that they need to live successfully — that’s really where our team stepped in and supported,” she said. “At first you want to celebrate their success at someone’s house, but then you realize the amount of pressure they have to deal with in those circumstances, and it was just unacceptable.

“The founders of Community of Hope are looking for answers. Where could an individual go who has the financial means but doesn’t have the support in place one would typically have when searching for an apartment, like [lack of] transportation [or a] computer, the ability to fill out an application or the ability to pay for the application fees.”

While working to help mitigate the difficulties of finding and adjusting to housing, Kilgore said she was working to help a man named Ricky navigate a difficulty situation where a landlord was not acting ethically. Kilgore said she came across a solution that could keep those she was working with from ending up in similar situations.

“So there’s a lot of barriers that one would face and just being able to find a home — and it was about that time, in 2018 or 2019, when we were going through this very frustrating season with Ricky, and then one day I was on social media and stumbled across a community in Austin, Texas, called Community First Village,” she said. “It was just a short three-minute video, and it brought me to my knees. It was an absolutely gorgeous area.”

Kilgore said shortly after she saw the video, she went to Austin, Texas, and stayed at the Community First Village. She said the organizers of the Village are currently in phase three of four of their building process and working to house 1,900 of Austin’s chronically homeless individuals in a successful model.

“The houses were absolutely beautiful. It made me cry because I knew it was the answer that Huntsville needed,” she said. “They have a very successful rate in which they are lifting people up off the streets of Austin but also keeping them off the streets of Austin. So, it’s really beautiful to see. It’s a community that has permanent and supportive housing.”

“I do want to make a very important note,” Kilgore added. “These individuals pay rent in Austin, and this will be true for our Community of Hope in Huntsville, is that the number one rule of the community is that you must pay rent.

“If you don’t have the means to pay rent, then we will work with you through our Workforce Development Program, which Community of Hope already has up and running in the Huntsville area to employ people who are experiencing homelessness so they can pay rent,” she said. “We’re excited about continuing our advocacy here in the Huntsville area. We’re excited about working to fulfill our mission, which is to build a residential community with permanent supportive housing structures in place to support our chronically homeless individuals in the Madison County area.”

Kilgore said she believes Huntsville has a problem of affordable housing that has the correct supportive services for people to stay housed. She said that Community of Hope is going to have mental health resources on site, jobs on site, entertainment and a working farm for people to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables.

“My heart was ready for this community to be built in 2019. We’re working to build a multi-million-dollar residential community, and that’s going to take a very strong foundation. That’s what Community of Hope has been working on since 2019,” she said. “[We want to] build strong relationships within the community, create brand awareness so that people know what we’re doing and who we are and continuously show up to show that we are engaged and excited about working with the Huntsville community. Brick by brick, we’re building that foundation. Since our inception we have raised over $1 million, which is exciting. A good portion of that is earmarked for land, which is our current goal. We are looking for and fundraising for 50 acres or so in the Madison County area, but we’re also fundraising for land because our goal is to be able to pay in full with cash.”

To donate to support the efforts of Kilgore and Community of Hope, visit www. hsvcommunityofhope.org.