Lending new meaning to the phrase “love thy neighbor,” Bay Area churches are turning their parking lots, backyards and other bits of unused land into tiny homes for the homeless members of their communities. And one local nonprofit has made it its mission to help.
Firm Foundation Community Housing, co-founded by a Presbyterian pastor, walks churches — and some secular land owners — through the daunting process of designing a tiny home community, securing city permits, applying for funding, and finding a contractor. So far, the organization has helped open tiny home villages on parking lots and extra land owned by churches in Livermore and Castro Valley, and on an Alameda County medical campus in unincorporated San Leandro. Another 14 projects are in the works in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and San Joaquin counties, and the Firm Foundation hopes to spread its reach even further, potentially down the Peninsula and to the South Bay.
Tiny homes appear to be the wave of the future when it comes to homeless housing, and cities from Oakland to San Jose are embracing them as safer, more dignified alternatives to dorm-style shelters. New state legislation has helped by removing red tape and making it easier to build villages of these studio-sized micro-homes, which, when they’re Firm Foundation projects, include bathrooms and small kitchens. But finding available space to build them is a challenge. Experts say faith-based organizations — which often have large properties they’ve owned for decades and no longer fully need — could be part of the solution.
