SAN ANTONIO — An overgrown east-side lot that used to be the site of the Towne Twin Drive-In is about to become a chance at a new life for some of city's most needy.
Volunteers invested their Saturday morning cleaning up the land that will soon become a tiny house village to help people out of homelessness.
The parcel, which covers about 17-acres of territory on Dietrich Road, is in the process of becoming the new home of the local Catholic Worker House.
The plan is to fill the area with tiny houses and other resources to serve older adults and help bring them out of homelessness.
Volunteer Pamela Farris showed up and got to work bagging up garbage left behind by illegal dumpers because she has a personal connection to the cause.
Farris said “I am in a homeless shelter myself right now and it has saved my life, so this place, I truly believe will be blessed and will save lives and that's what we need. Giving back is just my part.”
Because the community is fighting a pandemic, and a time of upheaval, Farris said now is a perfect time to act.
“With the pandemic everybody is reaching out for something. Everybody needs help. We've kind of gotten lost to the humanity of helping people,” Farris said, adding “I think we need to get back to that and join together and come together and just be a better community.”
Jerry Delgado came to help and he brought his daughter, who needed to complete service hours for her school.
“I've been blessed in my life to have what I have and I always feel like we need to give back. Not everybody has the same opportunities as we do,” Delgado said.
Delgado echoed concerns expressed by Farris for the uncertain times.
“Especially with all the negative effects on the economy that the pandemic has caused, I mean it was bad before, when we didn't have all these obstacles to go through, and when I say we I'm talking about the people that are less fortunate and so that's why we're out here, to help out, to try to give back what we can, when we can.”
The Catholic Worker House, which has been serving the community in the heart of the east side from a Nolan Street campus for decades, has been searching for a new home site for years. Landlocked and surrounded by a neighborhood that has seen a revival in recent years, the organization wanted room to expand in a more welcoming environment.
They say they hope to break ground on their new campus sometime next spring.
Here is the group's website, and their Facebook page.