Tiny homes, big results

By Keri Luise
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

Baltimore youth and young adults who have dropped out of school are given opportunities to earn high school diplomas or their GED as they “build tiny homes from the ground up” in a program offered by the non-profit organization Civic Works.

“YouthBuild brings in inner city residents, and with the conjunction of the construction workforce development, we utilize the hands of our members to assist them with skills development,” said Corbin Smith, Civic Works YouthBuild program coordinator, “primarily construction, and along with a skilled architecture, they hit the ground running and they build tiny homes from the ground up”

Civic Works acts as an umbrella to Tiny Homes within YouthBuild, a workforce development program targeting individuals aged 18 to 24, as well as about a dozen other programs focused on job training, skills development and community service. The miniature homes are built on trailers to certification standards for affordable homes.

“It’s still built like a conventional house except the trailer acts as the foundation, you have to bolt it down,” said Rodney Payne, Civic Works director of Construction Services. “You use the same materials and the idea is more to look like a house…except when you’re building on a trailer you want to keep it as light as possible.”

In the process of building these miniature houses, the program must work through city and state zoning restrictions.

“Due to taxes and things of that nature, the houses have to be properly zoned before they can touch ground,” Smith said. “So, you have property tax and things of that nature that has to be sorted out and since it’s a fairly new technology, government and policy just hasn’t conformed yet. But you know, it’s on its way.”

Payne said that the restrictions prohibit individuals in Maryland from living in the tiny homes on trailers, although they can own them. Because of this, he said the program is looking into building tiny homes on slabs rather than trailers to try to work their way around this obstacle.

“I think some of the problem is that if it’s on a trailer, it’s not necessarily considered a fixed asset to the property, so you can’t really tax it,” Payne said. “That could be one of the problems.”

Despite the obstacles, Payne said the benefits are real.

“It does provide an additional source of affordable housing,” Payne said. “You wouldn’t move into a tiny house if you had like a family of six, of course. It’d be a little small. But, if you were a college student just getting out of college or if you want to build an in-law a house on your property, they can have their own little space. There’s a lot of ways you can use a tiny house. They have a lot of purposes.”

In addition to working on the construction of tiny houses, Baltimore City youth involved in this program also work to earn their GEDs.

“Since we are a construction workforce development program, we are contracted by the city and the state and the federal government to assist with post-secondary educational placement and employment placement as well,” Smith said. “When our students come in, we do the … adult basic educations test, so that gives us a snapshot of exactly where our students are when they come into the program.”

Youth also are involved with classroom lessons to help them earn certifications and learn simple yet essential job skills.

“The program has a lot of benefits,” said Nya Carter, 20, a YouthBuild Tiny Homes member. “There’s financial classes; they teach you how to manage your money. There was also a lot of entrepreneurship stuff that I didn’t know before that I learned.”

Smith said many of the program members have been misguided or experienced years of no guidance.

“I would definitely say for our members, we’re trying to show them structure,” he said. “I feel like they lack guidance, they lack financial literacy because they are paid here and it’s like Friday, they get paid and some of them will come back Monday with nothing.”

Along with the classroom experience to earn their GED, members learn essential skills that can help improve their personal lives.

 “We push business mindset, it’s something that resonates, because we don’t want them to come out like they came in,” Smith said. “Another thing I like to resonate in the Civic Works with YouthBuild is that you’re 18 and older, so some things you’re going to have to do on your own.”

Members involved with YouthBuild through Civic Works come into the program to get that structure and build up their futures – as well as build tiny homes, officials said.

“I hope that when I leave here, I’ll have my GED and my driver’s license and maybe own my own place one day, a makeup studio or something,” Carter said.

Civic Works is Baltimore’s urban service corps and an AmeriCorps program. In addition to affordable homes, members also are taught about healthy food and green communities.