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<\/p>\nIn a North Austin parking lot on a muggy, rainy afternoon, an old dog is practicing a new trick.<\/p>\n
Lala, a white and grey spotted pitbull mix, is nestled between the legs of her owner and 14-year companion, Lynda January, who tools around on a motorized scooter outside her apartment building. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re both getting used to the scooter January bought a few months back \u2014 and the North Austin apartment. For most of Lala\u2019s life \u2014\u00a0and nearly a decade of January\u2019s \u2014 they lived in an RV at the Community First Village in East Travis County. Then, after an Lala bit another dog, January was evicted by her across-the-street neighbor who runs the village, Alan Graham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been there a long time,\u201d January said. \u201cOh, I begged for another chance. They wouldn’t give me one.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Lynda January and her dog Lala outside of a Foundation Communities apartment complex in North Austin in July. January was evicted from her home at the Community First Village earlier this year. <\/p>\n
January was at a community event when Lala bounded out of her trailer door that had come loose after eight years of wear and tear, biting a neighbor\u2019s small, off-leash dog. January said she tried to make it right.<\/p>\n
After paying for the dog\u2019s vet visit, which zeroed out her savings, January said she was given an ultimatum: Give up Lala or leave. She argued Lala wasn\u2019t running wild, that she could find a way to get her trained to alleviate her neighbors\u2019 concerns. She thought, after all these years, she\u2019d be given more of an opportunity to stay. She wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Almost] ten years I was there,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought I was going to die there. I thought this place was home.\u201d<\/p>\n
January is one of dozens of Austinites who\u2019ve had evictions filed against them by the Community First governing nonprofit, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, in recent years. The multimillion-dollar Catholic organization run by philanthropist Graham has seen a rise in evictions since the pandemic. While advocates say that spike is concerning, Graham said it’s just part of doing business at the development that\u2019s drawn national attention as a new model to get people off the streets.<\/p>\n
\u2018Mark on their record\u2019<\/p>\n
The sprawling Community First Village started back in 2015. A former real estate man turned staunch advocate for Austin’s homeless, Graham pooled millions in donations to open a first-of-its-kind development that marketed itself as a new way to get people housed in 3D-printed tiny homes. It\u2019s been touted nationally as a solution to homelessness. At last update<\/a>, the village had 440 formerly homeless residents, and the nonprofit aims to fully grow to as many as 1,900 units across 178 acres.<\/p>\n But over the last five years, the property has drastically increased the number of evictions filed against residents \u2014\u00a0and the eviction filing rate at the site is more than three times<\/a> that of Travis County as a whole. Last year, Mobile Loaves and Fishes filed 77 evictions, its highest annual number of filings ever, compared to just six cases in 2021.<\/p>\n The trend has troubled Dani Ward, who runs Queertopia ATX, a small nonprofit aiming to help Black, trans and queer Austinites get out and stay out of homelessness. Ward began raising concerns about evictions at the property in 2023, calling out the nonprofit\u2019s late fee and fine structure that led to scores of evictions.<\/p>\n Ward said vulnerable residents coming off the street often struggle to acclimate. The threat of eviction makes that even harder.<\/p>\n \u201c[For] the majority of people living there, this is the first time they’ve ever had a lease, even in their name, and they’re like in their sixties,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it’s very hard for someone to go from not having any type of lease to having to pay something on time. And then if you’re late, they charge late fees.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham said Mobile Loaves and Fishes since changed that fine structure \u2014\u00a0and that it did so after Ward and others pointed out the potentially illegal lease agreements.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we realized where we stood on that deal, we absolutely changed,\u201d Graham said. \u201cMobile Loaves and Fishes has an absolute record of always complying with the legalities of the law. And if we ever learn \u2026 that there’s something that we’re doing that is not in compliance with the law, we’re going to make those changes. That’s what happened in that case.\u201d<\/p>\n Alan Graham founded Mobile Loaves and Fishes in 1998, with only a food truck he referred to lovingly as the “roach coach.” Graham founded the Community First Village more than a decade ago and has gone on to raise millions of dollars to help house Austinites transitioning out of homelessness.<\/p>\n Graham also pointed out that many eviction filings don\u2019t result in someone getting removed from their home. Of the 77 evictions filed last year, 44 residents were ultimately removed from Community First Village. So far, the nonprofit has filed 51 evictions this year, which is a slight downward trend, Graham noted.<\/p>\n But just filing an eviction can have an impact down the road for people transitioning out of homelessness, said Carl Guthrie, an attorney with Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas. <\/p>\n For residents, Guthrie said, an eviction is a \u201cmark on their record\u201d if they try and get housing somewhere else. Texas law doesn\u2019t allow<\/a> for eviction filings to be expunged from a tenant\u2019s permanent record. If they apply for housing somewhere else, that\u2019s a huge hurdle for people transitioning out of homelessness, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of a lot of housing providers just maybe don’t even understand that, or they do and they just don’t care,\u201d Guthrie said. \u201cOr maybe they don’t understand the damage that comes from the filing alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham said the first rule, like at any rental property, is to pay rent on time. He reiterated that many filings last year didn\u2019t result in residents being evicted, but he didn\u2019t realize the filings themselves stayed on former residents\u2019 records.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don’t like the law, which is fine, we should change the law,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have an extraordinary level of grace and mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Nothing’s perfect\u2019<\/p>\n Community First\u2019s mission has been \u2014\u00a0since day one \u2014\u00a0to help homeless Austinites pick themselves up off the streets and get into stable housing and employment.<\/p>\n The nonprofit\u2019s unique in that it also employs residents, contracting them through its Community Works program. Residents can help do landscaping, clean facilities or sell art through the Community First store in-person and online.<\/p>\n Honey Plavidal makes a ceramic cup at Community First Village on Tuesday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Brandon Graham, a former Community First resident, made money while he lived at the property. He, too, had a dog that was at the center of his eviction, along with late rent payments and other fines in 2023 and 2024. In late 2024, he filed a fair housing complaint against Mobile Loaves and Fishes for not accommodating his doctor-approved service animal. The nonprofit began the process of evicting him in February 2025, a case that Graham is still fighting in a Travis County court. <\/p>\n Graham, a painter, was banned from selling his art in the Community Market ahead of his eviction. He said he felt targeted and that it was “traumatizing” that he couldn\u2019t sell his work to help pay his overdue fines and fees. It\u2019s a difficult spot to be in when your landlord is also your employer, and he said Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ decision to shutter its print shop, woodshop, autoshop and forge over the years has limited the ways residents can be self-sufficient.<\/p>\n “You brought them in, gave them a house, gave [them] a job, and then you take the job from them, and then they don’t pay rent, so then you take the house from them, kick them back on the street,” he said. “While you’re telling everybody \u2014 the whole planet \u2014 that, ‘Hey, we bring them in, we give them a job, they can earn a decent living, they can pay their own house.’ It’s all a lie.”<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787830089_530_.jpeg\"\/)
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