While I was on Council, two different churches in Northwest Austin came to me looking for ideas on how their congregations could do bigger and more impactful work in the community. The answer was clear – help solve homelessness.
Over the following year (up until the pandemic stopped all of my office’s work) we had many meetings with the leadership of both churches, exploring how they could take a small piece of the problem and provide the most direct and clear solutions.
Former Austin City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan, who provided key guidance as Peace Lutheran began exploring its options in 2018, emphasized the importance of “smaller solutions that smaller entities can get their arms around … that can be reproduced over and over and over again.”
“I think we’re all feeling concerned that the big-picture solutions are now out of reach,” Flannigan told me last week. “And for me, in this moment, I find clarity of purpose in finding the smaller solutions that I can do many times over.”
So impressed and proud that Peace Lutheran is taking the idea across the finish-line!
Statesman.com – Austin church plans to build shelter for homeless families. Will others follow?