On the first night in his new RV, Cody Stone stared at the queen bed. Neatly made with new linens, it looked far more inviting than the low concrete wall where he used to sleep in downtown Austin, Texas. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to pull back the covers and get in.

The gleaming, fully furnished RV -- his new home at Community First! Village, a master-planned development for people who have been chronically homeless -- brought the past several years of Stone's life into stark relief: two bouts with rectal cancer, abuse from his meth-addicted ex-boyfriend, an eviction that landed him on the streets, and beatings that he took there.

That first night, Stone, a slender man who wears leg braces and speaks with a Florida drawl, felt overwhelmed and alone. He slept on the couch.

But over the next few days, Stone, 51, began meeting his neighbors. They brought welcome gifts and dinner invitations and showed him around the property. He started thinking about new possibilities -- he could cook again, do his own landscaping, make friends.

Occupying 27 acres about 8 miles northeast of downtown Austin, Community First! Village is a residential development with 240 micro homes and RVs run by a faith-based nonprofit, Mobile Loaves & Fishes. Most residents have previously been homeless for long stretches, some living on the streets for decades. But about 20 percent are "missional" residents -- retirees, families with young children and others who feel called to live there and to serve.

The philosophy of Mobile Loaves & Fishes is simple: homelessness is caused primarily by a "profound, catastrophic loss of family." Housing alone won't heal that wound; community will.