Lending new meaning to the phrase love thy neighbor, San Francisco 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 their mission to help. Firm Foundation Community Housing, co-founded by a Presbyterian pastor, walks churches and 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 across the Bay Area and Firm Foundation hopes to spread its reach even further in the region. Tiny homes seem to be the wave of the future when it comes to homeless housing; they offer safer, more dignified alternatives to dorm-style shelters. The tiny homes in Firm Foundation projects include bathrooms and small kitchens.

Read Full Story


More: