Hope and Manny are an awesome couple who recently completed their own DIY van build and are traveling the country with their dogs working on other vans and doing philanthropic work in their spare time. The couple built not one, but two different bike trailer micro homes for homeless men on the West Coast.
Their first build was for a man in Bakersfeild, California, and it was a bit more rudimentary as they were learning what would work best, and they were using their own funds for the build. After their YouTube following fell in love with their work, they started a GoFundMe and made an even better one for a man in Seattle that included a solar panel and generator! Let us know what you think, and you can donate to their cause here.
Vanessa struggled with homelessness for years and had fallen into depression when she came across van life on YouTube. It seemed like a way out for her — but she needed a van! With a bit of inheritance money and a miracle, she ended up with her current rig for $1,300 and successfully completed a budget renovation on her home on wheels.
She has a lovely rig with a unique layout! Her kitchen is actually at the back of the van, her bed/lounge/closet is in the middle, and her “bathroom” setup takes up the front. Keep scrolling for their great tour!
Remember the Community First Village we told you about? Well now we want to tell you about The Field’s Edge, founded by a group of people who interned at Community First for four months so that they could replicate the awesome community-based system in Midland, Texas.
This group has been raising funding while finding RVs to house some of their homeless neighbors. They now have the property for their village and everything is coming together!
Construction began on Phase I in March 2021. Phase I includes the Mabee Foundation Community Center which houses The Field’s Edge offices, a behavioral and physical healthcare clinic space, a market, and a multipurpose great room. Also included in Phase I is the first “pod” of homes which includes 9 single-occupant tiny homes for the chronically homeless, one missional home, and a commercial bath, kitchen, and laundry facility that we lovingly call the Bathhouse. Construction of Phase I will be completed in June 2022.
The Village sits on 23.5 acres inside of the city limits of southwestern Midland and will eventually have 10 “pods” of homes, 90 homes for the chronically homeless, and 10 homes for missional residents who voluntarily live on site to help cultivate community.
This is so great! Could your community use a village like this?
Through this incredible program, people experiencing homelessness in France have a chance to build tiny homes and learn valuable construction skills in the process.
The video below shows Pascal, age 52, getting the keys to his own beautiful, clean home built by himself and others in the program alongside experienced carpenters. What a great idea!
Homelessness is a problem in every city in the country, and many times when we see tiny homes we think, “We need more of these for the homeless!” Community First! Village in Austin, Texas took that idea and brought it to life, with 51 acres of property with more than 500 homes for the chronically homeless.
But they’ve gone beyond just building houses — they’ve built a community. Residents find family and friends at the village, as well as work on the premises. There’s an art house, automotive shop, forge, organic garden and so much more designed to give the neighbors at the community purpose. The FAQ page answers tons of questions about the village here.
One of the ways they get revenue for the park is through some tiny house rentals where anyone can stay during a visit to Austin! Check that out here.
An awkwardly-shaped piece of city-owned property went from an abandoned lot, to a colorful village of 39 tiny homes built to give temporary shelter to some of the city’s homeless population. Each home is 64 square feet, and there are shared laundry facilities on site.
Units cost $7,500 each, including labor and materials, and were shipped as ready-to-assemble stacks of panels from builder Pallet Shelter in Everett, Washington. The total cost of the project was about $5 million, according to Kerkorian’s office, with the majority spent on re-routing water, power, and sewer lines to the site. Hope of the Valley gets a $55 per person daily reimbursement from the city to cover three meals and social services for residents.
Six years ago, Cortni’s life was falling apart: Her father had a stroke, she was trying to save his two faltering businesses (while hardly taking home a paycheck) and her roommates had made new living plans without her…When a family friend offered her a job at his campground, and a fifth wheel to live in, she reluctantly agreed and tried to keep her new “tiny life” a secret.
But in time, she fell in love with living in 350 square feet! She searched for a camper with a layout she loved, and decided to renovate the dingy interior into something a 20-year-old bachelorette would want to own. From there, she had the idea to start renovating RVs for a living with her business partner mom!
The dynamic duo (The Flipping Nomads) has now done 15 complete RV renovations, as well as working on upgrades for nearly 45 other RVs. She was recently asked by Keystone to design and build a concept RV — with pretty much no limitations to her creativity or budget! What an inspiration!
Check out a bunch of amazing before and after pictures below, and a huge thanks to Donald Campbell for sending us this great story.
This is the story of how tiny house villages are being built for Seattle’s homeless by the Low Income Housing Institute and its volunteers and donors.
When they built the first tiny house, the first homeless person who got it cried (of joy) because it was the first time they’d been able to shut a door in years. Not only that but also the first time to be able to have a place to leave their belongings. And the freedom and lightness of not having to carry everything everywhere.
OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) – Lake Merritt is often called the gem of Oakland. It’s home to the nation’s first and oldest bird sanctuary. It’s also home to at least 65 homeless people.
As a solution, the city is opening 20 community cabins, or ‘tuff sheds’, that will house 40 people at the Henry Kaiser Convention Parking lot. This is the third such community to be built in Oakland.
“I’ve moved around two times around here before I got to this spot and I just don’t really have another place to go,” said Andrew Flory.
