Homeless man jumps for joy over new tiny house

Jessica Bliss | (Nashville) Tennessean.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Homeless man jumps for joy over new tiny house Infinity Village is the first of its kind in Nashville, joining a national trend of homeless housing solutions through micro-home villages.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The abrasive buzz of the power saw cut through the cloudy morning, as a frenzied construction crew prepared to frame, wire and ready a set of homes for insulation and roofing.

For days, the group worked in a remote green space just off of Rosa Parks Boulevard, erecting tiny houses.

On Friday morning they traveled by trailer down Broadway and by lunchtime a village of small, stand-alone structures assumed permanent residence at Green Street Church of Christ ready to shelter Nashville's homeless.

"I get emotional about this, because this is so cool," said Roger McGue, who has twice lived in the homeless tent camp set up on the green space the church calls its sanctuary, including his current year-long stint.

"People are living in them," McGue said, looking to his right at the dozen tents set up around a fenced-in area. "And now they get to stay in those," he continued, glancing to his left at four of the micro homes that stood along the fence line. The other two homes will be completed and delivered by the weekend.

"And it's because people care," he said.

Infinity Village at Green Street Church of Christ becomes the first of its kind in Nashville, joining a national trend of homeless housing solutions through micro-home villages.

The micro home community — a creation effort led by the interfaith group Infinity Fellowship — is the first of its kind in Nashville. It becomes part of a growing national trend that began nearly a decade ago along the California coast and now includes Occupy Madison's tiny house community in Wisconsin, Quixote Village in Olympia, Wash., and Community First Village in Austin, Texas.

The colorful cluster of homes here in our city represents the coordination of two congregations, underlining their attitudes about homelessness and how people should live. But it also makes a grander statement: Envisioning is good, but acting is vital.

"When you take an action, people follow," the Rev. Jeff Obafemi Carr said Thursday afternoon as he watched the construction crew caulk awnings and paint door frames of the blue, yellow and orange homes.

Infinity Village, the name of the tiny-home community, was an idea dreamed up by Carr and one of his college fraternity brothers, Dwayne A. Jones, while riding down a bumpy road in a tap-tap truck in Haiti where they were doing missionary work. There, the two men discussed how they could have a direct impact on their local community.

Jones, who owns a construction company in Memphis, had already led significant build projects supporting needy. In his hometown, he creates community gardens and operates a transitional home for men just out of prison. He also takes frequent mission trips to Ghana, Haiti and India to build clinics, houses and schools.

It was time, Jones and Carr decided, to take that work to Tennessee. After attempting to raise funds for a village in Memphis, Jones collected only $150, and $10 was from a homeless person. He was trying to raise $15,000.

So Jones told Carr "we need to do this in Nashville" where the homeless population is estimated to be more than 2,300 people. The key to the idea, Carr said, was not to form committees and hold endless meetings, where the intention would devolve into much conversation but little action. Instead, he said, it was just to do it.

So, two months ago, Carr moved into a micro home built by Jones' crew and positioned on Monroe Street. He vowed to stay there until the GoFundMe campaign started by Infinity raised $50,000 — enough money to build at least six of the single-room, 60-square-foot residences, which cost about $7,500 each to construct.

It took 45 days to raise the money.

It wasn't the first time the reverend slept some place unusual to raise awareness. In 2009, Carr pitched a tent atop of the Amun Ra Theatre on Clifton Street — an organization he founded and one of Nashville's few African-American-run theater companies. He slept there, dropping a bucket down from the roof for supplies and donations, until he raised enough money to fund program operations for a season — nine days and eight nights.

This time, the stay was longer.

Living in the micro home was, at times, tough for Carr, who is used to hearing the nighttime noises of his five children. It was a "painful pivot," he said, to live with quietness and loneliness.

But he also felt comfort.

A folding Murphy bed hung from one wall, offering a place to sleep. The generator-powered abode also contained a mini-refrigerator, a microwave and a heating/air-conditioning hybrid unit, keeping him comfortable on muggy summer nights. There is no bathroom, and finding public facilities was a challenge he shared with many of this city's homeless. But the security of the residence overshadowed the hardship.

"I felt good staying here, and safe staying here and protected staying here," Carr said as he stood inside the rectangular space he occupied for more than a month — a place that now will serve as shelter for a member of Nashville's homeless community at Green Street Church of Christ.

"It felt like a home."

And that is what he — along with a generous local and far-reaching community of donors and builders — hope to provide for Nashville's neediest citizens.

Tiny-home villages for the homeless are meant to offer each resident a space to sleep and find privacy. People who spend months and years inside tents, on benches, under bridges or inside cars, receive a chance to again have a home with a front porch light and a door that locks. Even if it's small, it's something.

"This hits people," Carr said. "It's a great way to look at impact in people's lives."

And, in Carr's mind, it can do more. These micro settlements may not only alleviate homelessness, he said, but also possibly prevent it by creating more affordable housing.

He envisions a movement where funds are raised to build slightly larger homes — from 200 to 800 square feet — that would still be considered part of the tiny-home market and provide an option below the lowest rungs of market rent, which is soaring. In the first quarter of 2015, the average monthly rent in the Nashville area stood at $975, according to Colliers market report.

Such housing would fill the gaps between such high-cost rental spaces and the low-income units, like those subsidized by Section 8, for which there are often long waits.

That vision is next.

But for now, Carr continues to work with homeless organizations and local faith-based communities to identify land for micro villages. Green Street, he hopes, is just the first; and it has room, Carr said, to expand to a total of 25 micro homes. So the effort continues.

"We'd love to pepper this yard with houses," said Tripp Hunt, the church's attorney.

Agencies identified to accept homes will be responsible for the program aspects such as determining who lives in the home and for how long. At Green Street, the names of the 16 or so homeless camp residents were put in a hat and six were drawn out. Those people will move in this weekend, continuing to use the other amenities provided by the church like restrooms and showers, but it is not meant to be a permanent placement.

"This is a way station," Hunt said. "A place to rest."

"We help people step up," McGue added of his fellow homeless camp neighbors. And part of that, he said, will now be living in a small house with four walls and a roof, which is a good way for the homeless to sample apartment-style living as they work toward new independence.

Infinity Fellowship, meanwhile, will continue to oversee the building of new micro homes.

The movement has been an example of how a group of dedicated people — more than 650 donors and an 11-man construction crew — can affect change.

Specifically for a community downtrodden and often overlooked.

"We carry the idea that people can see beyond our preserved differences and come together around our commonalities," Carr said.

He calls this a structured act of kindness.

Other words that come to mind — commendable and incredible.

The $50,000 GoFundMe campaign goal has been reached and six micro homes have been built for Nashville's homeless, but the vision continues. The chosen site for the first set of homes, Green Street Church of Christ, can hold up to 25 residences. If you would like to donate to the continued fundraising effort click here.

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