Tiny Homes In a Big City by Faith Fowler

Tiny Homes In a Big City by Faith Fowler

Tiny Homes In a Big City, by Reverend Faith Fowler is the story of Cass Community Social Services, a Detroit based nonprofit that is in the process of building a neighborhood of 25 different Tiny Homes in the northwest part of the city. The homes are being built to allow low-income individuals a way to eventually own their own homes. This is the only rent to own tiny home neighborhood in the United States.

In Detroit, the qualifying residents will have a combination of experiences; formerly homeless people, senior citizens, college students and a few Cass Community Social Service staff members, all qualifying as low-income, but having a regular form of income. Like it's residents, each tiny home will be architecturally unique, no two being built exactly the same. Funding for the $1.5 million project which has been spearheaded by Cass has been funded by donations and grants.

Detroit's tiny home residents will initially rent the homes for $1.00 per square foot, per month. With the homes ranging from approximately 250-400 square feet each; no resident will pay more than $400 rent per month. After seven years of timely rent payments and completion of financial literacy classes, the individuals will own their homes and property which are expected to be valued between $40,000 and $50,000 each.

The houses are being built by both professional trades people (under the supervision of a general contractor) and volunteer teams who will manage the finishing jobs - tiling, dry walling, painting, gardening, building decks and erecting fences.

In Tiny Homes In a Big City, Reverend Fowler, Executive Director of Cass Community Social Services, responds to inquiries from other nonprofits and governments who seek to replicate the Detroit program. She explains how the decision to build the Tiny Homes was made, provides a comparison with other organizations that have used tiny houses for people experiencing homelessness, explains the philosophy behind their plan and offers the logistics of building the homes - from the idea's infancy through occupation. The book also provides online feedback, positive, negative and questions that were received when a video about the project went viral in the fall of 2016.

Reverend Faith Fowler is the Senior Pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church and the Executive Director of Cass Community Social Services (CCSS), a Detroit charity that provides food, health care, housing, and jobs to people in poverty. She has been in these positions since 1994. In addition to her work at CCSS, Rev. Fowler has served on the Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation (CCNDC) Board of Directors, the Detroit Area Agency on Aging Advisory Board, and the General Board of Church and Society as a Board Member and Trustee. She is currently the Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

From 1986 to 1994, before coming to Cass Community, Rev. William S. Fowler's pastor was Fowler. Detroit's Ford Memorial United Methodist Church. She worked with the Catholic Chaplaincy Team at Walpole Maximum Security Prison in Massachusetts from 1983 to 1986.