Dr. David Brown is a co-founder of a Springfield-based homelessness nonprofit called The Gathering Tree. Its projects include a now-defunct homeless campsite, Revive 66, and a series of tiny home neighborhoods, Eden Village.
Last week, Brown’s organization closed down the Revive 66 campsite until further notice. This week, they’re saying why. The closure is permanent. It’s a strategic shift. The Gathering Tree wants to focus on building more tiny homes through its Eden Village program.
“Building our fourth and fifth villages within the next five years, is a big, hairy, audacious goal," Brown told reporters at a Thursday news conference.
The villages Brown is talking about are Eden Villages. Springfield currently has two of them. They contain 55 tiny houses between them. The rent is currently $325 per month, utilities included. One of Brown’s colleagues calls Eden Village “ultra-affordable housing.” By 2029, The Gathering Tree hopes to establish five Eden Village developments in town. They’ve already begun planning to raise $5 million toward their goal.
Eden Village homes are intended to help serve chronically homeless people. The Ozarks Alliance to End Homelessness estimates some 100 individuals in town currently fit that legal definition. Estimates of Springfield’s total homeless population vary widely and cover a variety of legal definitions, from people stuck sleeping in their cars or on a family member’s couch to homeless individuals living on the streets over long periods of time.
Brown says his organization has helped lower that chronically homeless number since Eden Village 1 opened in 2018.
Meanwhile, the recently-shuttered Revive 66 campground site has roughly 70 trailers. An Eden Village official said they planned to keep 10 of them that were paid for with $60,000 dollars in city funding during the pandemic. The goal is to donate them to Springfield’s church-driven cold-weather shelter system.
What about the Revive 66 property in northwest Springfield? It provided more than 30,000 nights of shelter to unsheltered people, but Brown says going forward it will be put to good use.
Brown said, “Our intent is to donate the property at 3839 W. Chestnut Expressway to a local nonprofit for future homelessness services or affordable housing.”
