Anthony Flynn was on the fifth day of his job as the new chief executive of Covenant House Texas when the nonprofit battling youth homelessness opened its new campus. He smiled as residents, ages 18 to 24, moved into the 104,000-square-foot facility, designed by the global architecture firm Gensler. It boasted magnificent views of mature live oaks and the downtown skyline; outdoor gardens and an indoor basketball court; a clinic, a dining hall and a daycare.
“The connotation is that they can be free,” said Flynn, 47. “I know that life is hard, so… being able to laugh is a very big deal.”
When, at the age of five, he’d been thrown into housing instability – his mother waking him up, saying hurry, they had to go, and boarding a bus across the country – he had not felt free. He had watched his mother, only 22, cry as they traveled to a distant city, with no idea what would happen next…