Tiny homes make big changes in young Tucson lives

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TUCSON (KVOA) – Daniel Tadeo is only 18 but has been homeless for three years.

“It was bad,” said Tadeo. “I had nowhere, no stable home, always had to find out where to stay. How should I eat? How should I finish school?”

The teenager said he fell on friends’ couch and stayed in shelters. But next week Tadeo is moving into his own home.

“It will give me a stable home,” said Tadeo of his new tiny home near Grant and Oracle Streets. “Somewhere I can look forward to coming home and sleeping in my own bed.”

Tadeo is one of 10 youngsters at risk enrolled on The Small Home Experience. It is a program of the non-profit organization I Am You 360. The program offers young 18 to 22 year olds who are homeless or have aged out of the care system a fully furnished tiny home.

“It is very important that nine out of ten times these children are in a situation through no fault of their own,” said Desiree Cook, executive director of I Am You 360 Development, Life Skills Development. “

To participate in the program, adolescents must be drug-free, gain employment, learn a trade, and do community service.

“At the end of the two- to three-year program, our teens who move from couch to couch or live in shelters will be homeowners,” Cook said. “So we have the feeling of breaking the generation cycle and bringing about a generation change.”

Next week the first youth group will move into their new home. These houses are part of the Phase One Safe House program. Renters pay $ 1 per square meter of rent, or $ 350 per month.

Sponsors pay the other half of the rent, about $ 300. The nonprofit will start building another group of tiny houses on the east side of Tucson in a couple of weeks. These houses are 450 square feet.

Half of the $ 450 rent, or $ 225, will be held in trust for the teens so they can pay a down payment on a home when the program ends in two to three years.

Tadeo already thinks like a future homeowner. He plans to study welding, plumber and electrician.

“So if I have my own home and something goes wrong, like the fridge breaks or a pipe breaks, I know how to fix it,” he said. He also has a couple of job offers that he puts up.

Cook really is the beating heart behind the program.

“It’s personal to me,” she said. “I was homeless so I totally understand what it means to go from column to post, couch to couch.”

Her positive energy envelops everyone she encounters. Cook encourages the children to think positively and use their experiences to become better people.

Tadeo said the program had already made him believe in himself more than his own family ever did.

“I’m really, really grateful for all of this help,” he said. “It really gave me so much hope and purpose.”

Cook said the community was so generous in helping buy the items on Amazon’s wish list for the new tiny homes. So far, I Am You 360 has six sponsors, they need four more.

If you want to learn more about the organization or donate, click here.

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