A former preschool building on the campus of Peace Lutheran Church is being reimagined into transitional housing designed to help families regain stability while staying together during difficult times. Located in Northwest Austin, the Peace Family Housing project is an innovative and collaborative effort between the church, HomeAid Austin, the local community, and AEC professionals committed to making a positive impact.

Working alongside architect Jason John Paul Haskins, builder captains Freccia Group and Lennar Homes, and the City of Austin, Pape-Dawson has provided engineering and consulting services for the project over the past 2.5 years to help support the church’s mission. This project transforms an underutilized portion of the church’s campus into a new 3,348-square-foot quadplex residential building featuring four 2-bedroom 1-bath units, a large shared central kitchen and dining space, as well as a shared laundry room, playroom, and dedicated family room. The new building is intended to provide opportunities for short-term transitional stays ranging from 30 to 90 days, depending on each family’s needs.

A Community-Focused Vision

As the Austin market continues to face challenges, including housing affordability, this quadplex demonstrates what it can look like when a community comes together with a common purpose and how existing developed land can be thoughtfully transformed. By contributing their property, capital raised from grassroots fundraising, and their community-based ideas to the project, Peace Lutheran Church is ensuring families in need can maintain a comfortable home environment in a welcoming and safe location.

The Peace Family Housing Project was made possible through the leadership of HomeAid Austin, which brings together the homebuilding industry, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based partners to create dignified housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

For this project, HomeAid Austin focused on helping families stay together during challenging times. The organization connected Peace Lutheran Church and the Foundation for the Homeless with a team of design and construction professionals, leveraging donated labor and materials to help deliver the project at a reduced cost.

Since its founding, HomeAid Austin has completed 50 housing projects, served nearly 100,000 individuals, and secured more than $2.8 million in donated labor and materials. Once construction is complete, the Foundation for the Homeless will operate the facility and provide supportive services to help families build a path toward long-term stability.

Engineering Solutions Within a Complex Regulatory Environment

While the development is modest in size, the site presented multiple technical and permitting complexities. The property is located within both the City of Austin’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) and Travis County review authorities, each with its own individual application processes. Pape-Dawson’s scope of work included topographic and boundary surveying, traffic impact analysis, land-use analysis, dry utility coordination, fire flow calculations, and water/wastewater infrastructure, including a pressurized grinder pump system. The site is also subject to City of Austin Water Quality Criteria requirements and the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan (BCCP), which requires additional permitting effort and coordination with city entities. Sustainability and resiliency were key considerations throughout the project’s development as well. As part of this effort, the team brought existing on-site detention facilities up to current NOAA Atlas 14 stormwater standards and designed a new rainwater harvesting system for the building.

The rainwater harvesting set-up includes a 3,400-gallon tank, which will be used to irrigate the open space and landscape areas around the quadplex, helping to reduce potable water needs and integrate green methods of re-infiltration. Aesthetics and livability were also carefully considered for future tank installation, together with the building layout, to avoid blocking windows and to showcase the customized water quality treatment structure.

Pape-Dawson is honored to have played a role in bringing this unique project to life and is excited to witness it flourish and serve the community.