A coalition of business and community leaders in Fredericksburg is trying a new approach to ending chronic homelessness.
Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. And that's why the 72-hour deadline to build a new prototype home is making such a splash in Fredericksburg, where Atlantic Builders is working with a coalition of partners to build a prototype of what’s known as a Jeremiah community home on the campus of Oberle Academy. Meghann Cotter at Micah Ecumenical Ministries says the idea of a Jeremiah community is to end chronic homelessness by building a supportive housing neighborhood.
"The biggest thing that we have learned over the years is that people become homeless when they run out of relationships," Cotter says. "And we became interested in what is a little bit of a movement across the country of more of a neighborhood style of supportive housing."
Brian Roinestad at Atlantic Builders says the project shows the power of what can happen when a community of people works together.
"If you have something that people are willing to come together to support, you can do just about anything,"
Roinestad says. "I mean, how impactful is it to say, if we have a neighbor that's suffering from homelessness, if we put our mind to it, we can have a roof over their head in 72 hours."
The prototype home is expected to be finished on Friday at noon, and construction of the first phase of 50 homes and a community center is expected to start next month.
