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.
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?
Well this is good news for the homeless in Portland, Oregon! The government has approved a new pilot program called “A Place For You” that will allow willing participants to housing homeless people in tiny modular units paid for by the government and charitable donations.
Under the pilot program taking effect this summer, the homeowners will take over the heated, fully plumbed tiny houses in five years and can use them for rental income…Residents just passed a $260 million housing bond, but it will be two years before those units are ready, said Mary Li, director of Multnomah County’s new Idea Lab, which developed the concept.
The best part? About 200 homeowners have already signed up to get more information about the project because they are eager to help the homeless in a tangible way. Read the rest of the story here.
This is Peter Stiehler, head of Catholic Worker Hospitality House, who, along with his wife, is working on finishing a tiny house for the homeless and fighting for their legality in his city.
He currently runs a homeless shelter and a kitchen that serves breakfast “to about 70 people a day.” This month he has a meeting with the San Bruno community development officials in order to make a push for the city to allow more of these tiny homes in San Bruno, California. Read the full story at Mercury News.
