Mission Waco to be honored as Charity Champion for its efforts to help the homeless

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The latest TFNB Your Bank for Life Charity Champion is Mission Waco, an organization that is focused on a new development to house the homeless in McLennan County.

Creekside Community Development in Waco is a 68-acre master planned community of Mission Waco which will give permanent housing to hundreds, with a goal to provide enough homes to house every single homeless person in McLennan County.

Three homes are already up, 20 are being built, 35 will be completed by the end of the year and when the entire project is complete 346 homes will house the local homeless.

John Calaway is the executive director of Mission Waco.

He said the number of homeless in McLennan County is on the rise and something had to be done.

“Over time, we have seen a massive decrease in homelessness, 650 down to 200 since 2005,” Calaway said. “But, in 2023, we saw a 25% increase and so we were concerned that that number will continue to grow because we continue to see a high rate of people coming back to our shelter because they can’t afford the housing and so not having a permanent place to pay rent that’s affordable is really becoming a challenge.”

There will be a focus in the development on taking care of veterans.

“15 percent of those struggling with homelessness in our county are veterans, which is twice the amount of most cities, which is why 15% of our homes will be reserved for veterans,” Calaway said. “We still have five homes at $50k to raise that will be for veterans.”

Those who will live in Creekside must have lived in McLennan County for one year.

They must also have a job, which Calaway says the majority in Mission Waco’s shelter, My Brother’s Keeper, do.

“The #1 rule is that everyone pays rent,” Calaway said. “60 to 70 percent of those staying in our homeless shelter currently have a job but just cannot afford housing.”

Calaway says Mission Waco has already raised 10 million dollars for phase one, with another four million to go.

They hope to have phase one, which will include 35 homes built and move-in ready by the end of the year.

If you’d like to help by donating or for more information on the project you can go to www.missionwaco.org.

As this week’s Charity Champion, Mission Waco and Creekside Community Development will be recognized on the field at Baylor’s home game versus Arizona State Saturday.

They will also be given free leadership training and a marketing campaign.

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