Tiny Homes Aim for Big Impact in Detroit
Faith Fowler of Cass Community Social Services talks about efforts to end homelessness, work in Puerto Rico.
If you live or work in Detroit and have driven around the city, you may have noticed a series of tiny homes — just a couple hundred square feet of living space, nicely maintained.
It’s the work of Rev. Faith Fowler and Cass Community Social Services, who has been working to build the tiny homes program to give a proper residence to people living in extreme poverty and homelessness in Detroit. And she’s been trying to help with relief efforts in Puerto Rico at the same time.
Fowler joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk about those efforts.
“We’re targeting people who make eight, nine, ten, eleven thousand dollars a year,” says Fowler, “and giving them a chance not only for some place that will be permanent, but some place they can own so that they develop an asset or obtain a ladder to economic mobility — which is at the heart of the American Dream.”
She also discusses her involvement in Puerto Rico after the devastation left there by Hurricane Maria, trying to help people get electricity restored at least on a temporary basis with generators.
“We went to some of churches on the hardest-hit part of the island and said, ‘Tell us who needs help’ — and they did,” she says. “You get the desperation that people are in. Five months without electricity.”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
