A hotel along Route 620 in Austin could soon become permanent housing for homeless veterans, as the national nonprofit Tunnel to Towers Foundation says it is under contract on the property at 12833 Route 620 and hopes to close the deal by the end of the year. The organization, best known for building mortgage-free homes for injured veterans and the families of fallen first responders, is bringing its newer mission — converting old hotels into supportive housing communities — to Central Texas.
A Hotel Conversion With a Year-End Deadline
According to KEYE, Tunnel to Towers was under contract for the property at 12833 Route 620 and planned to renovate the hotel into permanent housing. Gavin Naples, the organization's executive vice president, told the station the foundation planned to close on the property by year-end. Naples joined We Are Austin's Trevor Scott to discuss the plans, describing an organization that has grown well beyond its original mission of building homes for catastrophically injured service members.
Naples said Tunnel to Towers has provided more than 2,000 mortgage-free homes for injured veterans, families of fallen first responders, and Gold Star families, per the same KEYE interview. He said the group's programs now also include smart homes designed for catastrophically injured veterans and mortgage support for grieving military families. But Naples pointed to a gap the foundation felt it still needed to close: homelessness among veterans who served but never received the stability a home provides.
Confronting Chronic Veteran Homelessness
Naples said more than 40,000 veterans experience chronic homelessness nationwide, framing that figure as the reason Tunnel to Towers expanded into what it calls Veterans Villages — developments combining permanent housing with round-the-clock support. Each Tunnel to Towers Veterans Village is designed to offer comprehensive 24/7 supportive services, according to Military.com. Naples told KEYE the foundation currently has about 22 village projects in development or completion across the country, with the Austin hotel positioned to join that growing list.
The foundation's long-range ambitions have been described somewhat differently across its own public statements. Naples told KEYE the group plans to build more than 100 villages over the next 10 to 15 years and create more than 12,000 units of permanent supportive housing. Newsday separately reported Naples describing a goal of opening 100 complexes with 12,500 housing units over the next decade, while The Post and Courier reported the foundation's plan as more than 100 villages in the next decade for about 12,000 units. The figures vary slightly depending on the telling, but the broader thrust — a scaled-up, nationwide push into veteran housing — is consistent across all three accounts.
How Other Cities' Projects Compare
Austin would not be the first city where Tunnel to Towers has pursued a hotel-to-housing conversion. The foundation's first Veteran Village opened in Houston in 2024, converting a 161-room hotel into housing for 131 veterans, according to The Post and Courier. In North Charleston, the organization transformed a hotel into a 91-unit affordable housing community for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness, the paper reported.
Other projects show a similar pattern of repurposed hotels becoming veteran housing. Tunnel to Towers broke ground on a Denver Veterans Village in November 2024 with plans to renovate a hotel into 120 units of single-occupancy affordable housing, per Military.com. In Birmingham, the foundation's project was planned to include 110 affordable housing units, the outlet reported. And in Island Park, construction on 42 veterans apartments began Nov. 6, 2026, with the project expected to open in late 2027 or early 2028, according to Newsday, which also reported Naples' comments on the foundation's decade-long housing goal.
Why the Push Comes Now
The expansion arrives amid broader national progress on veteran homelessness. U.S. veteran homelessness declined more than 50% over the past 15 years, according to federal housing data cited by Axios. Tunnel to Towers launched its Homeless Veteran Program in 2023 and says it has since provided housing assistance and services to more than 6,500 veterans, per Military.com's reporting.
The Story Behind the Foundation's Name
Tunnel to Towers takes its name from the actions of Stephen Siller, an off-duty Brooklyn firefighter who, upon learning the World Trade Center had been attacked on September 11, 2001, ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel toward the South Tower wearing 60 pounds of gear after the tunnel was closed to vehicle traffic, according to The Post and Courier. Siller, who had five children, died saving others that morning. His siblings later decided around a kitchen table how to honor him, vowing, as his family put it, that they needed to honor what he did. That vow became the foundation that now supports veterans, first responders, and their families nationwide — and, if the Austin deal closes as planned, a hotel on Route 620 may soon carry that mission forward locally.
