{"id":212,"date":"2019-04-11T17:04:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T17:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=212"},"modified":"2019-04-11T17:58:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T17:58:03","slug":"where-homeownership-starts-at-1-per-square-foot-by-carla-bell-yes-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/212\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Homeownership Starts at $1 Per Square Foot by Carla Bell \u2014 YES! Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.yesmagazine.org\/new-economy\/tiny-house-village-home-equity-homelessness-20190409\/<\/a>
\nWhere Homeownership Starts at $1 Per Square Foot A tiny house program in Detroit helps people avoid homelessness, and get a head start on building equity.
\nposted Apr 09, 2019
\nThe first tiny home before it was occupied by its first resident. Nonprofit Cass Tiny Home Development offers people with low incomes a safety net in the form of an asset: owning their homes after seven years of paying utilities and a fixed-rate rent. Photo by Michelle and Chris Gerard\/Curbed A radical experiment in a Detroit neighborhood is the American Dream come true for its most disadvantaged populations. For just $1 per square foot, people who are unhoused, people with disabilities, youth aging out of foster care, veterans, or those formerly incarcerated gain new accessibility to home ownership.
\nFor nearly 25 years, Reverend Faith Fowler has led Detroit\u2019s Cass Community United Methodist Church. In 1994, she founded Cass Community Social Services, an independent nonprofit organization that\u2019s paving an innovative route to economic growth through homeownership, using low-income housing as a vehicle. The same \u201cperson-centered philosophy\u201d that has always guided her work is now literally laying foundations of accessibility and framing futures.
\nCass Tiny Home Development, a program under the nonprofit, shares some elements with a \u201cHousing First\u201d model, a term applied to programs that provide stable housing before addressing issues like mental illness or drug addiction, which often accompany homelessness.
\nBut the Cass program doesn\u2019t remove all barriers. Applicants need to have a certain amount of stability in their lives before they get in, but \u201cnot so much that they could rent or buy property without our help,\u201d Fowler says.
\nThat means having an income between $7,000 and $12,000 per year, the ability to pay rent and electric bills, meet regularly with financial coaches, and volunteer at least eight hours a month in the community. Some residents may have criminal records, but the program focuses on inclusion of those unlikely to fall into recidivism.
\nAfter seven years, the tiny home and the land on which it rests are deeded to the resident, mortgage-free, and one more person has transitioned from a place of housing insecurity to place of housing equity. For many making that transition, it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve ever owned a home.
\n\u201cThe program is promising,\u201d says Claire Herbert, an assistant professor of sociology at Drexel University who studies housing and homelessness. \u201cIt creates an avenue for former prisoners to gain access to stable housing that they might not have the opportunity to do otherwise..\u201d
\n The first tiny home during construction in 2016. Photo by Marcy Hayes\/C&B Scene.
\nAs of June 2018, about 39,000 inmates were held in 31 correctional facilities across Michigan. Transition from incarceration to parole has always been contingent on several factors, including the stability of an inmate\u2019s intended housing arrangement once released, but Herbert says that, more and more, research is focusing on the process of prisoner re-entry, and support systems that reduce recidivism.
\nFor example, a new Michigan law grants earlier parole to those considered at low risk to re-offend. But the law comes with a new challenge\u2014increased responsibility to support this growing population in successful re-entry to society, and that success is centered on stable housing.
\n\u201cThe traditional model for getting the homeless back into stable housing is to have them jump through a series of hoops to demonstrate their preparedness for being housed,\u201d Herbert says, \u201cbut what Cass is doing meets the needs of a particular community in a particular place.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is a Housing First model that says \u2018everyone is ready to be stably housed,\u2019\u201d Herbert says.
\n A Cass Community volunteer gives guests of the first Tiny Homes Progressive Tour a presentation. Photo by Todd McInturf\/The Detroit News.
\nLike many other organizations, Cass Social Services tested a variety of housing models in the past. \u201cWhat we found is that many of our people could move on, but [eventually] they\u2019d come back, like a boomerang,\u201d Fowler says. Good people of limited means may end up with cars that break down or jobs that are eliminated, and they become homeless. Fowler wanted to help create a financial safety net\u2014economic mobility for those without. In considering how the organization could offer housing security and a way for tenants to acquire assets to help them build wealth, \u201cTiny homes seemed to fit that bill,\u201d she says.
\nFormer inmates reintegrating into society make up a minority of the residents of Cass Tiny Homes. Other residents include foster children aging out of care can also find themselves without assets or even a stable foundation on which to enter adulthood.
\n\u201cNationally, about 20,000 young people age out of foster care each year, and about a third will go on to experience homelessness,\u201d says Dawn Rains, a former foster parent and chief policy and strategy officer at Seattle\u2019s Treehouse, a nonprofit combating systemic obstacles on behalf of youth in foster care. Through wraparound case management and a partnership with the Seattle YMCA, Treehouse helps connect youth to housing and life skills.
\n Cass Community Social Services Executive Director Rev. Faith Fowler, on the right, speaks with a reporter at the first tiny home. The vaulted ceiling design allows the space to feel more open. Photo by Todd McInturf\/The Detroit News.
\nStill, in spite of these efforts and Washington state\u2019s extension of foster care provisions to age 21, about 500 young people age out every year. In response to this, a new state law prohibits public systems from graduating anyone who would then become homeless.
\n\u201cWhether exiting from the juvenile justice, foster care, corrections, or mental health system,\u201d Rains says a workable plan for housing must exist. Right now, there simply isn\u2019t adequate supply for the demand, but various state agencies are calculating the path to full implementation of the law.
\nAn approach like Fowler\u2019s through the tiny home program, she says, \u201cis an absolutely innovative solution, and a really critical help for this population.\u201d
\nFowler\u2019s parents taught public school. Her inspiration came from their examples of sacrifice and generosity, leadership styles that children observe and mimic when parents do it well. She also received an inheritance after the death of her mother, underscoring a privilege that starkly contrasted with the lives of those she served.
\nAs of April 2019, Cass Tiny Home Development has built 13 houses in the Dexter-Linwood neighborhood of Detroit, and six more are under construction. The homes range from 250 to 400 square feet, and can accommodate up to two occupants each. In a short time, the tiny homes village has experienced a rebirth. \u201cResponse has been extremely positive,\u201d Fowler says.
\nFunding for the project has been donated by corporations, foundations, religious organizations, schools, and individuals. \u201cPeople have been quite generous,\u201d Fowler says.
\n Ford Motor Company Fund President Jim Vella is joined by a team of Ford volunteers at the press unveiling of Tiny Home Detroit\u2019s first completed home. Ford Motor Company Fund is the venture\u2019s largest single donor. Photo by Charlotte Bodak\/Ford Motor Company Fund.
\nThe first contribution, from Ford Motor Company Fund, provided $400,000 for groundbreaking and structural development of the homes on land owned by the nonprofit. The organization has enough money to build 25 houses and is raising funds for 10 more, plus sidewalks and fencing, she says. The new homes will be large enough to accommodate families. A number of architects have been involved with the project, half of whom donated their services, and other costs are offset by residents\u2019 rent.
\nThe second phase of development in the tiny home project will include a commercial strip to provide services and jobs in the neighborhood. But Fowler says they\u2019ll be careful about who can set up shop there.
\n\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want to do is build 35 houses, and then at the end of the block, have medical marijuana and payday advances and things like that,\u201d Fowler says.
\n Pictured here are three of six more homes being built by Cass Community Social Services. Photo by Spencer Hayes\/C&B Scene.
\nShe plans to have a \u201cone-cup\u201d car wash on the site, a greener option that only uses one cup of water converted to steam, compared to 100 gallons used by a traditional car wash.
\n\u201cThis is the kind of innovation that ties in nicely with our emphasis on sustainability and the planet,\u201d Fowler says, also noting this is a type of business that can employ people with fewer workplace skills.
\nThe initiative also functions as an anti-poverty program. Unlike most any other low-income housing across the country, these homes represent a strategic wealth-building opportunity, and doesn\u2019t penalize tenants when their annual incomes rise above $12,000. In fact, \u201cthe program encourages residents to make, and save, more money,\u201d Fowler says.
\nUpdated April 11, 2019: This story was corrected to reflect how long Faith Fowler has been a pastor at the church, the relationship between the church and Cass Community Social Services, and to clarify the housing program’s model and the population mix of its residents. <\/p>\n

Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.yesmagazine.org\/new-economy\/tiny-house-village-home-equity-homelessness-20190409\/ Where Homeownership Starts at $1 Per Square Foot A tiny house program in Detroit helps people avoid homelessness, and get a head start on building equity. posted Apr 09, 2019 The first tiny home before it was occupied by its first resident. Nonprofit Cass Tiny Home Development offers people with low incomes a safety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}