The Greenville Homeless Alliance receives $97,000+ grant for student designed tiny homes built by previously incarcerated individuals

Greenville Women Giving, a philanthropic women’s collective giving organization, dedicated to identifying and funding local organizations in the areas of arts, education, environment, health and human services, has awarded the Greenville Homeless Alliance (GHA) with a grant totaling $97,125.72.

Funding will support an unprecedented, collaborative effort with partners from Greenville County Schools Fine Arts Center architecture program, Bonds Career Center building construction program, Soteria Community Development Corporation, Architecture 224, LLC, Craig Gaulden Davis Architecture, and Clancy Theys Construction. With the Greenville Homeless Alliance as the convener, this grant will kick start a pilot introducing an innovative, one-of-a-kind initiative to build two tiny homes designed by high school students and built by interns from Soteria, a non-profit organization addressing the needs of formerly incarcerated people. The challenge to access safe, affordable housing is even more stark for people with criminal convictions. Research shows that they are nearly ten times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population which can lead to chronic homelessness.

“We are humbled to have this generous investment from Greenville Women Giving to support the Greenville Homeless Alliance’s goal to lead a tiny home pilot,” said Susan McLarty, Director of the Greenville Homeless Alliance. “As noted in GHA’s 2023 Unsheltered Homelessness Brief, chronic homelessness costs the taxpayer an average of $35,578. This pilot can help address our affordable housing crisis and build capacity for future expansion on land Soteria owns, ensuring stability, a supportive community, and a continued 0% recidivism of Soteria 12-month graduates.”

With a pipeline of students and graduates from Soteria Community Development Corporation, this pilot offers the opportunity for ongoing collaboration that benefits students, Soteria interns, and community members who yearn for a permanent place to call home.

“As architects, we have an innate ability to help facilitate a solution to the problem,” said Fine Arts Center, Architecture Studio Instructor + Department Chair, Dr. Catherine Smith-Gates. “I don’t have words to describe how exciting it is for students to use their gifts for good and to see their work solve a real-world problem.”

In the pilot phase, students in the Fine Arts Center architecture program have created architectural plans for two tiny homes with pro bono review from local architects. Participants in Soteria’s prison reentry program will construct the two homes and place them on land owned by Soteria. Homes will then be rented to Soteria 12-month program graduates for approximately $300 per month.
“We reclaim wood and reclaim lives,” said Jerry Blassingame, Founder and Executive Director of Soteria Community Development Corporation. “This provides much needed permanent rental homes for our 12-month graduates to continue working in jobs in Greenville County.”

The full vision is to create a supportive community of affordable homes for people graduating from Soteria’s 12-month reentry program and for people emerging from homelessness. This broader vision will include still more local people and organizations, like students in Greenville County career centers working on construction.

Research conducted by the Greenville Homeless Alliance has cited exits from homelessness in the form of safe, affordable housing as the top priority since the 2019 Report on Homelessness in Greenville County. Convening a tiny home pilot to explore this innovative housing option utilizing local talent was identified as a top goal for 2024 by the Greenville Homeless Alliance’s Steering Committee. This investment from Greenville Women Giving will help address the affordable housing crisis and create a supportive mixed-income community.

About Greenville Women Giving
Greenville Women Giving is a philanthropic women’s collective giving organization created as a special initiative of the Community Foundation in 2006. Since its founding, GWG has awarded 152 grants totaling over $8.5 million and has grown to over 500 members. For more information, visit: https://www.greenvillewomengiving.org/

About the Greenville Homeless Alliance
The Greenville Homeless Alliance is a partnership of public, private, and nonprofit organizations committed to finding solutions to homelessness in Greenville County. Growing out of the “Tent City” crisis, GHA was formalized in 2018 as a collective impact organization. For more information, visit: https://www.gvlhomes4all.org/ .

About Soteria Community Development Corporation (CDC)
Soteria CDC advocates for economic and social justice for those and their families impacted by the criminal justice system. They work to create opportunities for previously incarcerated individuals to reenter society through transitional housing, life skills, and job training. For more information, visit: https://www.soteriacdc.org/ .

About The Fine Arts Center Architecture Program
In 2013, the Greenville County School District, Fine Arts Center, private donors, and Clemson University partnered to create the first of its kind high school architectural program. This program would allow and introduce students to the study of architecture and offer them the unique opportunity to achieve up to eight credit hours at Clemson University in the School of Architecture. For more information, visit: https://www.fineartscenter.net/ .

Copyright © 2024 BridgeTower Media. All Rights Reserved.