Shelter is one of the key tenets to survival, and ensuring everyone in the Brainerd community has a home to live in is the very core of the My Neighbor to Love Coalition, which is currently working on the construction of a fourplex within the city known as the Creekside Community project.

“It’s going to be an intentional living environment for people that are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity,” explained My Neighbor to Love Coalition Chair Vicky Kinney. “There’s so many people that were dealt a difficult hand. So I just want every person to have an opportunity to live a life of significance and move beyond survival.”

Back in October, the project officially began with a groundbreaking ceremony on World Homeless Day, and since then, the My Neighbor to Love Coalition has been working to raise funds and ensure the project remains on track, with the coalition hoping to have the fourplex open by July of this year.

“We broke ground in October, and personally it feels slow to me, but that’s the nature of a non-profit,” said Kinney. “So it’s a longer process than maybe most people would expect, but we are moving forward and it’s looking good. I’m very excited to get those first residents off the streets and into a home.”

Beyond the first set of homes, the Creekside Community project hopes to expand and live up to its name by building other community homes and transitional housing.

“We’d like to develop all of Creekside community, so our next project is going to be our holistic health center,” explained Kinney. “I think it’s going to be amazing to see lives transformed, to see people finally having a neighborhood.”

Currently, the My Neighbor to Love Coalition is still accepting donations for the current Creekside Community project and for future additions the nonprofit hopes to create down the line.

By — Justin Othoudt