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Over the last five years, the Community First Village — which has drawn national attention as a new model to get people off the streets — has drastically increased the number of evictions filed against residents.
Paige Plaisance, KUTX’s Artist of the Month for August, melds a killer voice with the sounds of swampytonkin’.
The Future Front Festival is marking a decade of creating the the kind of diverse programming it wanted to see in the world.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano The community first village in Austin has been praised for its success keeping people housed and off the streets, but evictions at the facility have been on the rise and that’s upsetting advocates and quite a few former residents. We’re gonna hear their voices and their stories. That’s coming up on today’s show.
Laurie Gallardo The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano The KUTX Artist of the Month for August features her Louisiana roots and all the music that she’s making here in Austin. The kind of sound that she calls Swampy Tonkin. What is that? Well, come meet her and get a listen for yourself. Plus, the front festival is marking a decade of creating the kind of diverse program it wanted to see on the screen and on the stage. What to expect from their 10th edition? We’ve got a jam-packed show for you. It’s coming up next right here on Austin Signal.
Jerry Quijano Howdy out there, this is Austin’s Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. It’s Thursday, August 27th. Thank you for being with us. Austin’s one-of-a-kind community-first village has been nationally recognized as an innovative way to end homelessness. A sprawling community in East Travis County run by a non-profit provides trailers and even jobs for people transitioning out of homelessness. But as KUT’s Andrew Weber reports, an increase in evictions in recent years has some advocates. And former residents concerned.
Andrew Weber In a North Austin parking lot on a muggy, rainy afternoon, an old dog is practicing a new trick.
Linda January I bought the scooter a few months ago, yeah, I taught her how to do that.
Andrew Weber Lala, a gray and white pit bull mix, is nestled between the legs of her owner and 13-year companion, Linda January, as January tools around on a motorized scooter in her apartment parking lot where we met. They’re both getting used to the scooter and the apartment in North Austin. For most of Lala’s life and nearly a decade of January’s, they lived at the Community First Village, a sprawling plot of land where formerly homeless people live in tiny homes and RVs. The development markets itself as a solution to get people like January, who’d been sleeping in her car before moving there eight years ago, into stable housing and employment. It’s a place January thought she’d die, she jokes, as we make our way up to her third floor apartment.
Linda January Are we on the third floor? Yes, ma’am. OK. All right.
Andrew Weber Lala is a curious dog, surprisingly energetic for a 13 year old. Not threatening, but protective. She’ll plop her head in your lap once you get to know her, smiling with what January calls a shark’s mouth.
Linda January Yeah.
Andrew Weber But earlier this year, there was an incident. Lala bit a neighbor’s dog.
Linda January I was trying to get in front of the incident and I had some money in my savings. So I said, look, here’s $300 for your trouble. I am sorry this happened. Keep an eye on that wound if you think we should go to the vet.
Andrew Weber And January ended up doing just that. She took the dog to the vet, a visit she’s still paying off, then Community First gave her an ultimatum. Give up Lala or get evicted. January offered to find a way to get Lala trained through a local non-profit, thinking she and Lala could make it right. I was willing to pay for it, and they said no. For January, the choice between the people she’d considered family at the Community First Village and Lala, who’s been with her since she was a 10-week-old pup sleeping in January’s truck, was gutting. I always considered the village home.
Linda January And I could understand of all this since it happened the first year, second year, four years. I was ten years I was there. I thought I was going to die there. I thought this place was home, you know?
Andrew Weber And they really cared about me. January is one of dozens of Austinites who’ve had evictions filed against them in recent years by Mobile Loaves and Fishes, the nonprofit that runs Community First. Last year, the eviction rate at the site was more than three times that of Travis County. Mobile Loafs and Fish has filed 77 evictions compared to just six in 2021. The trend has troubled Danny Ward, who runs Queertopia ATX, a small nonprofit aiming to help marginalized Austinites Get out! And stay out of homelessness. Ward began raising concerns about evictions at the property back in 2023. She called into question the fees and fines that led to scores of evictions. Ward says vulnerable residents coming off the street often struggle to pay rents on time and many eviction filings at the village are for non-payment.
Danny Ward The majority of people living there this is the first time they’ve ever had a lease even in their name and they’re like in their 60s so it’s very hard for someone to go from not having any type of lease to having to pay something on time and then if you’re late they charge late fees
Andrew Weber Alan Graham is the founder and CEO of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. He says they’ve since changed that fine structure, and did so after Ward and others pointed out potentially illegal lease agreements.
Alan Graham They brought that to our attention and when we realized where we stood on that deal, we absolutely changed. Mobile Loaves and Fishes has an absolute record of always complying with the legalities of the law. If we ever learn in the complexity of everything that we do that there’s something that we’re doing that is not in compliance with the law, we’re going to make those changes. That’s what happened in that case.
Andrew Weber Graham also points out that many of the eviction filings don’t always result in someone getting kicked out. Of the 77 evictions filed last year, 44 residents were ultimately evicted from the Community First Village. But just the filing of an eviction can have an impact down the road for people transitioning out of homelessness, says Carl Guthrie, an attorney with Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas.
Carl Guthrie That’s a consequence.
Andrew Weber Guthrie says state law doesn’t allow for eviction filings to be expunged from a tenant’s permanent record. If they apply for housing somewhere else, that’s a huge hurdle for people transitioning out of homelessness, he says.
Carl Guthrie A lot of howling providers just maybe don’t even understand that, right? Maybe they do and they just don’t care. Or maybe they don’t understand the damage that comes from the filing alone.
Andrew Weber Alan Graham says the first rule, like at any rental property, is to pay rent on time. But he didn’t realize the filings themselves stayed on former residents’ records. Now, if you don’t like the law…
Alan Graham Which is fine, they should change the law. We have an extraordinary.
Andrew Weber Level of grace and mercy. Graham says the mission of Mobile Loaves and Fishes has always been to help homeless Austinites pick themselves up off the streets and get into stable housing and jobs. But the nonprofit is unique in that it also employs residents, contracting them through its Community Works program. Residents can help do landscaping or clean facilities or sell art through the Community First store in person and online. That’s how artist Brandon Graham, a former resident, made money while he lived at property. But after some disagreements with management about his service dog, he was fined and eventually banned from selling his art through Community First.
Brandon Graham That’s a horrible feeling to put on somebody. Like being the black sheep of, and I mean, I’m a good person, you know? And suddenly they sold me as the bad guy.
Andrew Weber He says it’s a difficult spot to be in, when your landlord is also your source of income, and some of those opportunities dried up during his time at Community First. He says Mobile Loaves and Fishes closed its print shop, wood shop, auto shop, and forge when he was there. That’s limited ways residents can be self-sufficient, Graham says.
Brandon Graham You brought them in, gave them a house, gave him a job, and then you take the job from them, and then they don’t pay rent. So then you took the house from them. Kick them back on the street. While you’re telling everybody, all the whole planet that, hey, we bring them in. We give them a job. They can earn a decent living. They can pay their own house. It’s all a lie.
Andrew Weber He was evicted last year, and he’s still fighting the eviction in a Travis County court. Ward, the advocate who pushed Mobile Loaves and Fishes to change its leasing agreements, says her clients have been complaining about their reduction in programming for years. She says a lot of these issues, paying rent on time, finding employment, could be solved by having dedicated social workers for people when they move in.
Danny Ward Like 90% of the problems there could be solved if people were assigned a case manager upon getting into community first, but they don’t believe in that. They have a very like pick yourself up by your bootstraps.
Andrew Weber Alan Graham says the village doesn’t come after its residents, and it partners with nonprofits to connect them with social services. But rent must be paid, Graham says, and he and other staffers work to avoid evictions at every turn. We’re not here.
Alan Graham To put people on the streets. We have a history and back it up with hundreds of millions of dollars spent lifting people up off the streets, unlike anybody has ever done, including the people who complain. They’re not living in this like we do.
Linda January You’re gonna tell your side of the story?
Andrew Weber Back at her North Austin apartment, Linda January says she doesn’t have any hard feelings. She’s grateful the nonprofit helped her find a new place, but it’s more expensive. And the third floor space is much harder on her knees than when she lived in an RV at the village.
Linda January They do a good thing there, but nothing’s perfect in this world. You know, nothing’s like, you know, only heaven is. And that’s to me, that was like heaven on Earth. But, you, know, I’m I am Lala loves it here, as you can see. I’m sad here, but I’m grateful I have a place to live.
Andrew Weber January considers Graham and her former neighbor’s family. She misses them, but she says, like any family, they can agree to disagree. I’m Andrew Weber in Austin.
Jerry Quijano All right, joining us now for a Reporters Notebook is Andrew Weber. Welcome to the show, Andrew. Thanks, Jerry. So tell me a little bit more. You’ve been doing a lot of reporting over the years on Community First. How did this particular story get on your radar?
Andrew Weber Yeah, I’ve reported on Community First. A lot of it has been sort of groundbreakings for their expansion. They’ve been expanding pretty much my entire career that I’ve been here at KUT. But I’ve also interacted with folks who live there. And one of the folks, this was three years ago now, a guy named Lee, he reached out to me just kind of out of the blue and said, I’m facing eviction at Community First, Um, they’re, you know, they basically took my job away arbitrarily. And I didn’t really know how that system worked that, you know, because the way this is set up that, basically your landlord is also your source of income. Uh, Lee ultimately moved, uh, to Colleen and actually I just figured out today that he, I was going to reach out to him. He passed away, uh in April of 2025. Um, but you know other advocates had reached out to me about doing a story about how many evictions there were. And the complaints that a lot of residents had that they said that this felt arbitrary and that this felt like, you know, kind of against the general mission of mobile loaves and fishes. So that’s kind of, you know, how it got, you know, on my radar.
Jerry Quijano Your radio story was fantastic with lots of dogs barking and lots of personal moments between you and these people. How do you go about gaining their trust whenever they’re going through this really rough time and you’re telling their story?
Andrew Weber That’s a really good Another question, I think just talking to people, you know, part of this job that is, I don’t want to call it a burden, but you talk to people when they’re kind of at their worst moments sometimes, especially if they’ve been kicked out of their home. I think, just talking with them and just being present and gaining trust to me is a weird way to put it because I just talk to them and listen to them because I think A lot of times they feel like they’re not been. They haven’t been listened to, I should say.
Jerry Quijano Well, you talk to the humans and you also talk to dogs. I think that’s what makes you likable, relatable. Tell us, were there any particular roadblocks or anything that was particularly difficult about reporting this story out?
Andrew Weber Yeah, finding somebody. I mean, this was a story that I pitched, I think back in May and end of May, to be fair, but getting ahold of folks is difficult if you have to cold call them, if you to figure out their information, their email address, their cell phone number from LexisNexis public records that we have, that we can do. And there was a list of more than 300 people listed that I’ve been compiling for three years about, you know, of all these evictions. So it’s kind of just going down that list and ticking boxes. And about a dozen people responded, and only a handful of people really wanted to talk on the record because this is something, it’s an eviction, they don’t necessarily wanna talk about it. They don’t want it to be publicized maybe.
Jerry Quijano Well thank you for reporting their stories, the people who did want to talk to you. We certainly appreciate that. We have been speaking with Andrew Weber. He is the government accountability reporter here at KUT News. Thank you, Andrew.
Andrew Weber Thank you, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano Okay, the Austin City Council is set to vote today on how to regulate and potentially ban large-scale data centers within city limits. The measure tasks city staff with creating these roles, including standards for water, noise, heat, lighting, and site design. If the measure is approved, city staff expect to bring back new roles for council approval in the spring. The city could put a freeze on any data center permits until those rules are adopted. We got a chance to speak with that. Speak about that yesterday with KUT City Hall reporter Luz Moreno Lozano. You can listen back to that at kut.org slash signal and we’ll bring you whatever is decided at city council and we will bring you more Austin Signal. It’s right after this break.
Jerry Quijano Welcome back, this is Austin Signal. If you’re looking for some weekend plans that include film, music, workshops, and even a pool party, the Front Festival presented by the local arts nonprofit Future Front Texas kicks off tonight and runs through Sunday. Future Front, Texas founder Jane Hervey is here with us to talk more about the festival, which is celebrating its 10th year. Jane, welcome to the show.
Jane Hervey Yeah, thanks for having me.
Jerry Quijano So tell us a little bit about Future Front Texas, what is it, what do y’all do?
Jane Hervey Yeah, so Future Front is a 501c3 community arts organization based here in Austin. We got our start back in 2016, if you can believe it, a group of women and LGBTQ plus artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, creative small business owners, just wanting to create spaces for support. So we launched our first market and art fair and festival back then. And we’ve been doing it ever since.
Jerry Quijano It will tell us a little bit about the programming. I see it runs the gamut from films to every little thing. So tell us what’s gonna be featured. What do you have here?
Jane Hervey Yeah, so the festival, 10 years old this year, we’ve always celebrated independent music, film and art and operated off of an open call. And so it’s a 10 year tradition of welcoming so many different independent voices. And this year we’ve got a Texas rap and electronic music showcase for our music night with up and coming breakout star, Lynn and baby doll as well as majesty. We’re also welcoming some guests that’s from Fem House in a workshop on how to produce your own electronic music. We’ll have a panel on building your own stages as well. For our film night, we’ve got 12 incredible independent films, all shorts, things that have screened all over the country, but maybe have not yet had their debut in Austin yet. And we’ll have Sunset Performances by the Lake and. Yeah, I think that’s what’s really cool about the festival is not only do we feature so many different artists and across disciplines whose work you might not find or see otherwise, we also are in some incredible venues that really have shaped the culture of Austin and have some iconic history attached to them.
Jerry Quijano Well, a decade on, you mentioned how important it was to diversify the lineup on your stages. What have you learned about how hard that work is and how proud are you of the work that y’all have done to make sure that your lineup is a representation of the community that you’re in?
Jane Hervey Yeah, I started this project when I was 21 years old. So it goes without saying, I think when you’re younger, you have these big ideas and these big questions. And I really went into this with just a big question. What does it look like to program with a curatorial lens that’s not necessarily focused on diversity and representation as a check mark, but more so we’re actually reflecting the voices who live here, who make work here, and who are building community here. And so. That’s always been the question from the jump. And I think over the last 10 years, I’ve learned that there are actual frameworks and like curatorial practices that you can engage in to make public programming more diverse, more reflective of the community. And so it’s been exciting to work on really large projects with Downtown Austin, with Peace Park, with some of these really large public spaces to bring that framework elsewhere. I think I’ve also learned that like community is just nuanced, you know, people, especially here. People. You’ve got generational Austinites, you’ve got generational Texans like myself, I’m a sixth gen Texan. You also got people moving here every day, you know, transplants, a lot of like residential turnover. And so having these kinds of spaces like future front like community arts organizations where we’re really, you know, letting the community get on stage doing that open call work, but also doing that research, and being out and about and going to shows and participating. We need that for our local scenes to thrive. And I think I come from a long line of the do it yourself Austin people who have just decided to make something and gone after it and shown up for what emerged. And so, that’s really what I’ve learned is you just have to keep showing up even if you’re doing it 10 years, you still have to go to shows. I still have research all the artists and musicians and filmmakers we work with. I still to have my finger on the pulse in terms of what’s going on in this community if I actually want us to be a space for emerging talent. So. Yeah, just like being about it is what I’ve learned. You gotta be about it.
Jerry Quijano Okay, The Front Festival kicks off tonight and runs through Sunday. We have been speaking with Jane Hervey, founder of Future Front Texas. Jane, thank you for your time.
Jane Hervey Thank you.
Jerry Quijano Paige Plaisance says the KUTX artist of the month for August. Her upcoming album Swampwater will be out September 4th and follows her 2024 debut, Louisiana Lonely. She’s celebrating the new album with a release party at Antone’s on Saturday, September 5th. She is joining us now to talk about the project. Welcome to the show, Paige.
Paige Plaisance Hi, thank you for having me.
Jerry Quijano Yeah, absolutely, we’re really jazzed to talk with you. On your KUTX Artist of the Month page, your music is described as swampy-tunkin’. Can you describe that a little bit?
Paige Plaisance I have been in Austin for about 14 years, but I started playing music again in the honky tonk scene in about 2020, 2021 at Sagebrush, that’s kind of where I got started again. And I started planning, you know, the country music and the honkey tonk thing. And then I wanted to put my own spin on it with, you now that Louisiana sound. So I kind of added some soulful and blues elements. Into my music I try to and minor chords and things like that to make it sound kind of swampy. So I call it Swampy Tonkin.
Jerry Quijano0 Been midday sneakin’, hidin’ in plain sight
Jerry Quijano You said that you got to Austin about 14 years ago, how did you find your way here?
Paige Plaisance Sorry, 12 years ago, I got here in 2014. I said, I did say 14 years ago. OK, no worries. But I graduated from LSU and in Baton Rouge. And then two of my friends had moved to Austin. And I came to visit them before I graduated. And I just loved it. I went down on South Congress. And I was like, oh my gosh, the Continental Club’s jumping. You’ve got all these amazing little shops. And, you know, I’m a vintage clothing lover. So I was seeing the markets and all of that going on. I was like, I just want to be a part of this. I was, like, I don’t know how I’m going to be apart of it yet, but I know that I want to.
Jerry Quijano Okay, well, your sophomore album, Swampwater, is coming out in September. How long have you been working on this project?
Paige Plaisance Well, you know, I’ve been writing it pretty much since we stopped recording the last one, you know. I’m always writing. So like, I’m already writing another album right now, but you know I can’t, I don’t really know when I would say we started recording last November at Finishing School. Jonathan Tyler is my producer. He’s produced all my music that’s out right now. He was, you know, doing the audio engineering and the producing at finishing school. And that that studio is owned by Gordy Quist of the band of Heathens. It’s their studio. And Gordie was in there too, kind of helping and listening. And, you know, he was assisting for sure and a part of it. And it was just a really fun experience, but I brought my band in there. So we’ve been working on it, I guess, technically from November to March. Rolls right over the river We were taught about the dangers but we went Just as soon
Jerry Quijano This is your sophomore album. Did you go bigger this time around, or you mentioned a lot of working with a lot different people there. Was that similar to the first time you recorded, when you recorded Louisiana Lonely, or was this kind of different from that first experience?
Paige Plaisance I will say, I feel like we went a little bit bigger just in that as an artist, I feel like I’ve grown a little and I’m a little more confident and I was more excited to go into the studio. Whereas in before I was just so nervous. I didn’t know what I was doing. So with this, I was like, I want to bring this person in and this person in, you know, and so I got to have a little bit more fun with it. Recording kind of the meat of everything was done. Live. So we were all together playing together and recording at the same time. So that was a really cool element of it. And I feel like it captures the song really well when you do that in a studio like at finishing school. So bigger wouldn’t be the word that I would use, but I would say like I feel it’s definitely I’m excited about this album just in what we were able to make. And I do feel like as a musician, I’ve I’ve grown in these last few years in learning what I want to do and my sound and, and then Jonathan really captures that, helps me capture that really well. So working with him as my producer, he kind of helps me bring that, you know, bring that home onto the album.
Jerry Quijano Well, you mentioned the growth that you’ve been experiencing as an artist, and you mentioned that you really don’t stop writing. So we are anticipating the release of Swampwater on September 4th. But what do you see for your future? Like, what would you like to do maybe on your next album or on your single?
Paige Plaisance I’d really like to tour with this album, so I’m working on that and planning that. As far as next music goes, I’ve been writing a little bit more, you know, I say it’s bluesy, I mean I’m sure people still consider it a little country too, I mean, I am country.
Paige Plaisance You know, I’m from the country, so my writing just kind of comes out that way. And my voice is that way, so more of my type of songwriting, which is I like I get very inspired by nature and, you know, the elements that I’m surrounded by. So that’s usually what I get inspired by is kind of the environment that I mean. So the trees and the birds and everything. And I like to write about all of that. So probably more of that.
Jerry Quijano Very cool, very cool. Well, we look forward to hearing that when it does come out. We have been chatting with Paige Plaisance, the KUTX Artist of the Month for August. Again, her album Swampwater is out September 4th with an album release celebration the following night at Antone’s. We’re gonna have a link to her full performance in Studio 1A in today’s show notes. Paige, thank you for your time. Thank you, Jerry. And thank you out there for spending the day with us. That is it for us here on Austin Signal. But there’s more from the show at kut.org slash signal. Jake Perlman is our technical director. Alexandra Hart is our producer. Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. And I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We’ll be back tomorrow, same time. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
