A Midland couple is working to build a village of small houses and give local homeless people a permanent place to stay.

John-Mark Echols and his wife Briana are Midland natives. However, it was the months they spent in Austin, living at the Community First village for formerly homeless people that inspired them to make a change back home.

"It’s a far more complicated story than asking somebody to just pick themselves up by their boot straps and get a job,” John-Mark Echols said. “They don’t have bootstraps to pull themselves up by.”

The Echols moved back to Midland and started the non-profit Field’s Edge, with the goal of providing permanent housing to Midlanders that have spent years of their lives living on the streets.

“We target the most vulnerable,” Echols said. “The people that have gone through all the available resources in our city, but still are homeless.”

The couple purchased land on the southwest side of the city, and will build 100 tiny-houses. Every ten homes will share community laundry and bathroom facilities.

"On site we’ll have a behavioral and physical health care clinic,” Echols said. “We’ll have a market with a food pantry. There will also be free produce that’s coming out of our garden that we’re growing on site. That’ll all be free to our residents.”

Living at Field’s Edge isn’t just a free ride though. Residents will pay rent.

“We offer opportunities for people to earn income through dignified programs,” Echols said. “Woodworking, gardening, art, blacksmithing, pottery; programs like that we call micro-enterprises.”

Like they did in Austin, the Echols and their two young kids will live in their own tiny house in the village.

“We believe the house is just the starting point,” Echols said. “It’s the place of stability. It’s the wraparound care of an individual, walking with them from decades-long homelessness to a community of family.”

Echols said they are hoping to break ground on the Field's Edge village early next year.