The Eureka Christian Health Outreach Clinic has received national attention for using volunteers and donor support to provide free healthcare services to hundreds of low-income people without health insurance. Now ECHO is talking on another project that could also be a template for other communities: establishment of a “green” ECHO Village that will be largely constructed with volunteer labor to help provide affordable housing in a community environment.
This past Friday ECHO closed on ten acres for the ECHO Village between Kerusso’s and the Eureka Springs Police Department on Passion Play Road. That location has the benefit of access to city water and sewer, and it’s on the trolley route.
“For the five years we have been operating ECHO, we have noticed a lot of our patients are homeless or almost homeless,” said ECHO co-founder Suzie Bell. “They were couch surfing. It was an alarming thing for us. We felt like that was an important part of our ministry. If you are concerned about housing security, you are not going to be compliant with your health and medication. We started working with that five years ago and have been constantly seeking a permanent solution to the homeless issue.”
Mayor Butch Berry, an architect, is developing five different house plans for the ECHO Village, including one for a tiny house. Berry, a fan of tiny houses, also designed the newer portion of the ECHO Clinic. As mayor, Berry has identified providing more affordable housing as key to economic development and quality of life in Eureka Springs.
“I am very excited about their project,” Berry said. “It represents a fulfillment of a need we have in Eureka Springs for economical single-family homes.”
Berry said that the ECHO village would be designed to be sustainable and have a low impact on the environment. It will have solar panels and use green building materials. He expressed confidence that ECHO can pull it off because of the organization’s track success in attracting volunteers dedicated to helping others.
Bell, who went down to the Gulf Coast eight times after Hurricane Katrina to help with rebuilding, envisions volunteers not just from Eureka Springs to make the village happen. World Mission Builders, a group of volunteers, have agreed to come help dry in up to eight homes in two weeks.
They are planning 20 – 25 small homes in the community, one and two-bedroom houses ranging from 300 – 1,200 sq. ft. Homes will be clustered, leaving room for green space, a playground, community garden, community picnic area and community center.
“Community” is key, said Dr. Dan Bell, co-founder of ECHO. People will be encouraged to interact with and cooperate with each other. The idea is to have a true “village” instead of just another subdivision. Younger people could help elders with chores difficult for the elder to do while the elder might help babysit the younger people’s children or walk their dog while they are at work.
Since homes will be on the trolley route, people will have transportation to stores and public facilities like the library, and be able to work without having to pay a car note and insurance each month.
Homes will be affordable and targeted to people who are handicapped, senior, homeless, single parents, those with mental health challenges, veterans, and first-time offenders released from prison.
“They will have covenants to fulfill,” Bell said. “They must keep the property up. They must cooperate and live with each other. You can’t be a hermit and live there. We will have a live-in resident manager, and her home is the first home building. She is a single mother with a child.”
The community center will be used for Thanksgiving dinners, for one, so families of residents can be invited. They will also offer classes on good parenting, how to write a résumé, financial management, basic housekeeping skills, gardening and how to do simple repairs.
“We are hoping to have some basic skills people can do like sewing and quilting projects that they can sell,” Suzie Bell said. “Extra produce could be sold at the farmers’ market. They will have chickens.”
Right now, they have raised enough money to purchase the land and build the first home and a half, and are actively fundraising.
“We are asking area churches to build a home and support it with mentoring to the individual who then ends up living there,” Bell said. “The Methodist Church has committed to building a house and a couple of other churches are starting that conversation. One individual has said she will pay for a house.”
The smallest homes will cost about $33,000, and will be sturdy, energy efficient and comfortable, with amenities like washers and dryers.
“We want people to be proud of where they are living,” Bell said. “They will be a place where people can get their life in order. We want to help people break that generational poverty cycle by helping them have pride in holding a job, living in a decent place, and actually learning how to save money and make good monetary decisions. Financial management and planning are going to be critical.”
Also planned is a bunker house with five beds for women on one side and five beds for men on the other side. This will be for transient homeless people passing through.
Transient homelessness occurs often. Currently some local churches contribute to the cost of putting transient homeless people up in hotels, where hotel owners give a discounted rate.
Bell said their overall desire is to change people’s lives for the better, giving them not a handout, but a hand up.
“We want them out of the poverty cycle where they are one car transmission problem away from being homeless because they have to choose between fixing the car and paying rent,” she said. “We have volunteers who want to work with the program by helping guide and mentor folks. That is our dream and venture.”
In addition to the Bells, other volunteers heading up the project include Steve Richie Roberson and Kim Clark. Clark has also purchased property for an ecovillage called Hawkshill that is planned on a piece property located further down on Passion Play Rd.
If you want to volunteer or donate, call the ECHO Clinic at (479) 253-5547.