Tiny Homes Building Lives 18 Months Later
Six tiny homes built on the grounds of First Presbyterian Church of Hayward last year are helping formerly homeless people find permanent housing, rebuild disrupted lives, and sometimes even get better jobs, says pastor Jake Medcalf.
“It’s going fantastic,” Medcalf told the Forum.
In a video posted by the church, resident Jamal Haynes was also enthusiastic.
“I’m really excited to be moving into [First Presbyterian’s] tiny homes,” he said. “I’ve been like just working my butt off, cleaning houses, driving for Uber, and I finally got an opportunity to move in a home and hopefully a permanent home sooner or later. But it’s really very exciting and I look forward to the future of being successful here in the tiny homes.”
The church, located in Grove Way near the corner of Redwood Road, by Trader Joe’s, opened the six tiny homes for the formerly unhoused on February 13, 2020.
This was just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to wreak further havoc on Bay Area housing and especially on the homeless and poor. The state’s initial lockdown began March 16 of that year.
Rev. Medcalf said of the inaugural 10 residents who were approved for the project, five moved to permanent housing and two moved to long-term transitional housing with additional support services.
The tiny homes currently house five residents with one more applicant waiting for approval. Medcalf said that residents are screened, and a background check is performed. This is partly because the residents volunteer at a preschool on the church’s campus, and state law requires a background check for any volunteer at a preschool or school.
Most of the current residents are working outside the home, Medcalf said.
“More homeless people work than people realize.”
The tiny homes are occupied by either a single adult or a parent and child, given the modest space inside, Medcalf said.
The 160-square-foot homes each include a living area, a kitchenette, and a full bathroom.
Medcalf said residents do pay rent, with a portion set aside for them to eventually use as first and last month’s rent on a permanent apartment.
“We’re learning from our first effort. One of the things we learned is that the tiny homes could each use a bit more outside space,” he said in the video as the camera reveals a child’s bike and outdoor toys in a somewhat tight space just outside one home.
The tiny homes project was built quickly and at no cost to the church, Medcalf said. Helped considerably by nonprofit builder HomeAid Northern California and Castro Valley builder CoBuild Construction Services, the project took only six months from project conception to opening day.
“The building industry really came to the table, and donated all the materials and all the trades, so these units came at zero cost to the project. They were built in six weeks,” Medcalf said on the church’s video, referring to time spent on actual construction work.
Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley helped needed permitting proceed smoothly at the county level, he said, and Hayward City Councilmember Sara Lamnin helped introduce the church to the possibilities of tiny homes.
The church is trying to spread the word about tiny homes and help build them elsewhere through its Firm Foundations Community Housing effort. Medcalf said that Firm Foundations worked with Livermore’s Crosswinds Church to build its Goodness Village tiny homes community.
Firm Foundations also worked with Alameda County on a 34-unit tiny homes project near Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, with a ribbon-cutting coming Sept. 15, Medcalf said.
Rev. Medcalf says on the video that First Presbyterian’s Tiny Homes project was a sort of prototype for similar projects the church is helping other churches and nonprofits build to make a dent in homelessness.
“These six units took up 12 parking spaces, and almost every faith community and maybe surplus landowner and maybe even you have this kind of space,” Medcalf said. “So what we’re really trying to do is multiply how do we keep doing this over and over again.”