To all of our District 5030 clubs, Rotarians from our district have been building tiny homes at the Hope Factory run by Barb Oliver for the last three years. We have built as a district approximately 36 tiny homes and donated over $80K to the project.
Presently we have a standing building date on the 4th Saturday of each month to provide at least 12 volunteers to build one tiny home. Volunteers are instructed to arrive at 9am and usually we are done by 2pm. It’s a perfect way to experience construction of a building without any prior knowledge. They have friendly and helpful veteran volunteers who can teach everything to a first-time builder. Learning to use power tools, framing walls, putting in windows and doors is a fun endeavor. At the end of the day, standing back and admiring your hard work by actually seeing what you have accomplished is a cool experience.
Also, along with building you learn that each tiny home has a life expectancy of 20 years and the average time spent by the occupant is approximately six months, giving this one tiny home 40 people shelter off the street. These tiny homes are brought together to form villages usually between 20 to 45 in size.
The business of building these tiny homes falls on the Hope Factory, which can build 4 to 5 units per week. It is the job of the
Low Income Housing Institute or LIHI to actually decide where theses villages are located around the region. Locations of theses villages can range from private, city, industrial and church properties. Presently there are 115 tiny home units ordered from Hope Factory to go towards three new villages.
Each Village is fenced with only one entrance, with a community area for cooking, washing, bathing and gathering. Each village has a social worker to provide help with services to reenter the job market. Most villages are clean and sober communities to help folks get back on their feet.
To sign up for volunteering to build a tiny home Rotarians can go to
https://district5030.org/tiny-homes/ we as a district have to support our volunteer date once per month. It is a great way to for any club to have a wonderful group project.
Scott Craig, Commissioner, Tiny Home Volunteer Coordinator – scottdcraig@aol.com/206-551-4453
