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By Holly Meyer

The Associated Press

Churches across the U.S. are tackling the big question of how to address homelessness in their communities with a small solution: tiny homes.

On vacant plots near their parking lots and steepled sanctuaries, congregations are building everything from fixed and fully contained micro homes to petite, movable cabins, and several other styles of small-footprint dwellings in between.

Church leaders are not just trying to be more neighborly. The drive to provide shelter is rooted in their beliefs 鈥� they must care for the vulnerable, especially those without homes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just such an integral part of who we are as a people of faith,鈥� said the Rev. Lisa Fischbeck, former Episcopal vicar and the board chair of Pee Wee Homes, an affordable housing organization that builds tiny abodes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Fischbeck led the Episcopal Church of the Advocate when it added three one-bedroom units on its 15-acre campus. The first residents, including the organization鈥檚 namesake, Nathaniel 鈥淧ee Wee鈥� Lee, moved into them in June 2019.

Before that Lee, 78, had spent years sleeping in alleys, cardboard shelters and cars after medical issues ended his masonry career. Today he enjoys watching TV in his home, growing tomatoes, and fishing in the nearby pond.

鈥淚 thank the Lord because this is mine and nobody can run me out,鈥� Lee said, breaking out in laughter as he sat on the porch of his little white house.

Fischbeck said tiny homes can fit nearly anywhere, and an advantage to building them on church properties is they already have electricity, water and other infrastructure in place.

鈥淚 just feel so passionately that churches have space,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust consider it. It鈥檚 a dire need.鈥�

The embrace of tiny homes as housing solutions can be found in both sacred and secular spaces. Within the Christian sphere, their use spans denominations. Often the tiny homes build upon related ministries such as providing parking spaces for people living in their cars. Beneficiaries are generally welcome to attend worship services but not required to do so.

Some churches鈥� projects are already up and running, while others are still working toward move-in day, like the Church of the Nazarene congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota, which is assembling a tiny house community for chronically homeless people with local nonprofit Settled.

鈥淲e do not have a lot of property,鈥� said Jeff O鈥橰ourke, lead pastor of Mosaic Christian Community in St. Paul. 鈥淲e have just strived to use every square inch of property that we have to be hospitable.鈥�

This past spring in El Cajon, California, Meridian Baptist partnered with local nonprofit Amikas to begin building emergency sleeping cabins on a slice of its property that Rolland Slade, the church鈥檚 pastor, said is usually unoccupied except by tumbleweeds.

Mothers with children 鈥� a hard-to-shelter demographic 鈥� can stay for 90 days and connect to the city鈥檚 housing safety net for more permanent options. Bathrooms and a communal kitchen are in a nearby church building.

鈥淔olks have said to me that six cabins are not going to make a difference, and I wholeheartedly disagree,鈥� Slade said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l make the difference for at least six women. If they each have a child, that鈥檒l be six children.鈥�

For help with construction, operation and overcoming bureaucratic hurdles, churches often turn to community organizations like Amikas, Pee Wee Homes and Settled.

Firm Foundation Community Housing, in the San Francisco Bay Area, is another. It was launched by the Rev. Jake Medcalf, the former lead pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hayward, when the congregation built transitional tiny housing in its parking lot.

Houses of worship not only have land to spare, Medcalf said, but are positioned to 鈥減rovide community in a way that really is humanizing and is a part of anybody鈥檚 basic healing and recovery.鈥�

In 2020, First Christian Church of Tacoma, Washington, became a host site for a tiny home community set up by Low Income Housing Institute. The nonprofit operates the village, allowing the congregation to contribute without overextending itself.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a lot of money,鈥� said the Rev. Doug Collins, the church鈥檚 senior minister. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a whole lot of people 鈥� but we care a lot about it, and we鈥檝e got this piece of property.鈥�

Not everyone welcomes these projects into their neighborhoods. In Nashville, Tennessee, plans by Glencliff United Methodist Church to put up tiny homes prompted backlash and a lawsuit by some neighbors. Ultimately the Village at Glencliff prevailed, and today an arc of multicolored micro-homes greet congregants as they pull into the church鈥檚 driveway.

The church specializes in helping people with medical issues, like William 鈥淕reen Bay鈥� Scribner, 37, who spent seven months recuperating there. Not only was he able to leave in better health, he said, but village staff helped him land a more permanent apartment where he can host his young daughter overnight.

For people with medical vulnerabilities like Scribner, 鈥渉ousing is lifesaving,鈥� said the Rev. Ingrid McIntyre, a United Methodist minister and village founder.

A nationwide survey, the most recent conducted without pandemic impacts, found that about 580,000 people were homeless on a night in January 2020, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development鈥檚 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. The number, based on point-in-time counts, rose for the fourth year.

The tiny home movement on its own is too small to fix the whole problem, said Marybeth Shinn, a Vanderbilt University professor who has studied homelessness for decades. It would be hard to scale up to meet the overwhelming demand, she said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 good to help some people, but we need to figure out solutions that are going to help many more,鈥� Shinn said.

Donald Whitehead, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said he supports churches using their spare space to help homeless people and sees tiny homes as a great emergency option, but added that homeless people deserve standard-size housing like everyone else.

鈥淚t can be included in a menu of resources that would help to address homelessness,鈥� Whitehead said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 an opportunity to build a regular home at the same price, we would prefer that people build the regular home.鈥�

Meanwhile, churches also are finding tiny homes useful as temporary housing in the wake of natural disaster.

Months after a deadly December tornado ripped through Mayfield, Kentucky, some renters were still displaced. Bread of Life Humanitarian Effort, a Churches of Christ nonprofit, stepped in to help.

With buy-in from Mayfield congregations, the nonprofit used donations that were pouring in and started putting up tiny homes wherever they could secure permission 鈥� including next to Northside Church of Christ.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got people that are hurting,鈥� said Joel Crider, Bread of Life鈥檚 treasurer. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our Christian duty to look out for them.鈥�