Charlene Ludwig lost her husband and her apartment in Rockdale in March 2024. Nearly 70 years old, she was forced to fend for herself on the streets.
She recalls being raped, beat up and hospitalized before finding her way to Mission Waco’s homeless shelter.
This week, she turns a page as she moves into Creekside Community Village, Mission Waco’s new community of tiny homes on the south edge of Waco.
“It seems like God’s got a purpose for me to be here,” Ludwig said. “I know he wants me to write a book about it, and that might be something I do.”
Ludwig was among the first residents to pick her new home: a yellow house strategically near the common bathrooms. She is looking forward to having her own space and getting back into quilting.
“I might get a three-wheeler and just ride around the area just to see what’s in the area, besides the highway – I don’t want to get run over,” Ludwig said.
Creekside Community Village, located on a 67-acre tract at 3810 S. University Parks Drive, is the biggest project yet for Mission Waco, a leading area Christian nonprofit aimed at helping those in poverty.
Its $15 million first phase, with $2 million in city funding, will feature 40 homes along with common amenities. Mission Waco officials ultimately hope to expand it to some 330 homes.
“The fastest-growing group of people in the country experiencing homelessness are people age 65 and older, because their incomes are not keeping up with housing costs,” said Mission Waco Chief Village Officer Jonah Fox.
The gated community, based on Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ Community First! village in Austin, is designed to be more than a place to sleep and eat.
It includes a movie theater, a bathhouse, kitchen and dining hall. It will provide services onsite with transit available to offsite services, Mission Waco officials have said.
Residents will pay a modest rent, which they can earn by working onsite, and some residents will be “missional,” choosing to live there for the sake of ministry.
Mission Waco officials hope to provide stability for formerly homeless people by providing them with decent housing and a supportive community. To be eligible, residents must have lived in McLennan County for at least a year and have no record of violent crime.
From the street to the village
For Ludwig, the path to Creekside Village included eight months on the street. She discovered Mission Waco’s Meyer Center, a one-stop shop for low-income families and those experiencing homelessness, and later secured a spot at the charity’s homeless shelter, My Brother’s Keeper.
After her eviction, Ludwig was able to stay with a friend for three months. When she had no place to go, she said police took her to a Temple hospital to be evaluated for mental illness.
Ludwig remembers thinking everything was in God’s hands.
“Nothing I can do. He’s got to be helping it somehow. I don’t know if this is a help, but it’s a helping, maybe the right way, and then from there, it’s just been up and down hills.”
Ludwig relies on disability benefits to make ends meet. She will pay $401 a month for her new home. Since she does not drive, she expects to use the transit programs Mission Waco offers to get to her favorite places, including the Central Library.
Ludwig is looking forward to getting back into her crafting hobbies, including sewing and quilting in her new home, after leaving her quilting supplies behind at her former home.
“So I lost a lot,” Ludwig said. “And I thought, this is a new beginning, different age. Let’s try something different.”
Finding a foothold
Michael Dionne, 61, will also move into Creekside on Thursday. Last spring, he lost his job working at Circle K and then lost his motel room at New Road Inn.
Since October 2025, Dionne has relied on Mission Waco and its programs for support. He was able to stay at My Brother’s Keeper and eventually get a job in a restaurant.
Dionne views his time with Mission Waco as a period of rehabilitation.
“I’ve made some poor choices,” Dionne said. “Those poor choices landed me in the situation I’d gotten into, and coming here helped work out the things that landed me in that situation, correct the structure, reorganized my behavior.”
Since then, Dionne has gotten a part-time job in the kitchen of the AC Hotel.
Dionne initially wanted a blue or purple house, but went with an earth-tone house with a porch and storage closet for his bicycle. His place will cost $560 per month.
“I’m looking forward to not having to wake up at five o’clock in the morning, to be quite honest, and having privacy and having a door,” Dionne said. “I came from living in an apartment to living in a hotel room, and then having to go back into the group communal situation because of my circumstances.”
At Creekside, Dionne plans to set up a free little library, cook for others and eventually provide spiritual counseling. Dionne wants to get ordained and later on go back to Texas State Technical College to receive a degree in culinary arts.
“I love working in a kitchen environment, a restaurant environment,” Dionne said. “It’s my wheelhouse.”
