Tiny home shelter helps Sacramento's homeless young adults get back on their feet
For the last six months, Tristin Endl's home has been a temporary shelter. The 23-year-old had been homeless and living on Sacramento streets.
"It was terrifying because I didn't know where I was going to sleep next," he said.
Now, he's one of 50 young adults between 18 and 24 staying in tiny homes at the First Step Communities shelter in north Sacramento.
"For a large number of the young people that come here, this is the first time they've ever had a room to themselves," said Joseph Pacheco, executive director of the shelter.
Pacheco says many of the clients grew up in unstable living conditions.
"I'd say the majority of the young people who come to our site here are prior foster youth," he said.
The facility gets the majority of its budget from the City of Sacramento. But now, First Step is asking community members to "adopt" individual cabins to help raise more money.
"We are seeking a donation level of $2,000 per cabin," Pacheco said. "A lot of that money goes towards paying for us to have on-site therapists here at the shelter, eliminating any barrier for our clients getting that behavioral and mental health support that they need."
Each cabin has a bed, with an air conditioner and electricity. Some tenants keep a small garden and lawn furniture out front. Residents share bathrooms, a game room, and a laundry room.
The program's goal is to prepare people like Endl to get jobs and live on their own.
"They're young, they haven't been experiencing homelessness for a very long time, and they're able to recover much faster," Pacheco said. "We permanently housed 109 young adults from this site alone."
Endl will be ending his stay in cabin 48 soon to join the U.S. Navy, and there's a long wait list of other young people desperate to get off the streets and move in.
"Unfortunately, we're always full," Pacheco said.
The facility has been open for five years and was the first tiny home shelter in Sacramento.