- Kevin and Shanice Inniss lived in a van for a year while they saved up money for a tiny home on wheels, which forced them to be separated from their daughter.
- The Inniss family was able to build their 400-square-foot house with the help of a down payment assistance grant provided by Project Tiny Home, which aims to help those in need of housing.
- The grant program was created by Sutter Home Family Vineyards in partnership with Operation Tiny Home, Wells Fargo, and Zack Giffin, the host of "Tiny House Nation."
- There are still six tiny homes available through the grant program, and you can find out if you're eligible for one here.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Operation Tiny Home is a nonprofit that helps those in need get access to tiny homes.
The organization has a myriad of programs that help people deal with homelessness and other hardships through tiny living.
Operation Tiny Home recently teamed up with Zack Giffin, the co-host of "Tiny House Nation," Sutter Home Family Vineyards, and Wells Fargo for Project Tiny Home.
Giffin has been hosting the A&E show “Tiny House Nation,” which is now available to stream on Netflix, since 2014.
Sutter Home Family Vineyards, on the other hand, is a wine brand based in California that prides itself on making wines that people like to kick back at home with.
Together, they created Project Tiny Home, which offers a down payment assistance grant to people in need who are looking to own a tiny house.
The idea behind the program is to give people the boost they need to purchase their own tiny home.
“Oftentimes, people don’t have $10, $15, or $20,000 laying around,” Gabrielle Rapport, Operation Tiny Home’s founder, told Insider. “We’re able to give them a match grant that gives them the opportunity.”
The program is intended to help people who are struggling, whether that be because they’ve recently gone through a natural disaster or are a veteran dealing with homelessness.
“Really, this Operation Tiny Home project is about identifying that there are these small goals that can sometimes be a barrier to block people’s access to entry,” Giffin said.
“It can seem like a small amount to somebody from the outside, but trying to find that extra $5,000 or $10,000 for a down payment holds a lot of people, who could otherwise afford this type of housing, away from doing it,” he added.
The program was set up to give 10 families homes, and the first 4 tiny houses have already been completed.
The first tiny home went to Kevin and Shanice Inniss. Kevin is an active-duty member of the Air Force.
The couple lived in Japan for two years, where they had their daughter, and then moved into a van upon their return to the states.
“The Innis family had been living in a van for a year trying to save up for a down payment,” Giffin told Insider of the family.
The most difficult part of the Inniss' journey was that they had to separate from their daughter while they saved money.
Kevin and Shanice sent their daughter to live with Kevin’s parents for a few months while they saved money to get out of the van.
“They were going through really drastic steps to get their life back to a more sustainable path,” Giffin said, with the desire to be reunited with their daughter at the forefront of both Kevin and Shanice’s minds.
“He was so ashamed of what they were doing to try to save up money that he wouldn’t let anyone he worked with know,” Giffin said of Kevin Inniss.
A tiny house on wheels seemed like the right fit for the Inniss family since Kevin's work takes them to so many places.
“Kevin knew that every two years or so he was going to be transferred, but they can now have that home-base that they can give to their daughter, and it’s just going to make such a difference,” Rapport told Insider.
The mobility of the house would allow them to feel at home wherever they go.
The Inniss family’s 400-square-foot home was built by Cornerstone Tiny Homes.
The Inniss' living space features two floors and is built like a typical home, despite its small size.
The home features a full bathroom, a kitchen with a microwave, a stove, an oven, and two bedrooms.
The aesthetically pleasing details were important to the Project Tiny Home team throughout the building process.
"I think sometimes there's a misconception about what tiny homes are," Rapport said.
“You know, temporary housing is very important, and shelters do make a difference for a certain demographic,” she said.
“But what we’re talking about is tiny homes that have all of the amenities of a regular-sized house. These are intended to be lived in as permanent housing solutions.”
“They’re built to last and they’re beautiful,” Rapport added.
"What I try to remind people of is that aesthetics have a function," Giffin said of tiny homes.
“The movement started because people were building these adorable little cabins, and they were so obviously not mobile homes,” Giffin said.
“As the tiny home movement has kind of progressed naturally, people are looking for more square footage at lower cost, and the reality is that the cheapest way to build a shelter is with a shed roof,” he said, which is a problem because the look of the homes is part of their appeal.
The finer details of tiny homes separate them from the stigmas that are associated with trailer parks.
“Tiny homes use that aesthetic, and use that obvious quality in construction that you can see from across the street, to sidestep those social stigmas that are kind of projected at mobile homes and trailer parks,” Giffin said.
“There’s a function of aesthetics, and part of that function is that you want to be welcomed into a community,” Giffin added.
“What kind of tiny home would I build? It would depend on what kind of community I’d want to be part of.”
For instance, the Inniss' home features multiple amenities, such as a washing machine, that allow it to act as a forever home for the family.
“You can build something beautiful and affordable, and a lot of people don’t see that,” Rapport said.
Giffin said that people looking to live in tiny homes often have "very personalized needs for space."
“When you have a really small home, if you don’t carve those personalized needs in right from the beginning, you almost inevitably run out of space,” he said, which is why he thinks it’s best to talk to families about what they need from a tiny house before its built.
For example, the Inniss family needed two bedrooms to accommodate their daughter, so Cornerstone Tiny Homes made that possible by creating a two-story house.
“That’s the success behind tiny living: being able to design for your needs,” Rapport said. “Otherwise, you just feel like it’s too much of a sacrifice.”
"Tiny homes often fit the needs of those who are without housing," Giffin told Insider of the tiny house movement.
In the case of the Inniss family, a tiny home gives them both stability and mobility at a price they can afford.
“It’s trying to develop a housing solution where you’re hitting that balance between affordable but dignified, but then also making it appropriate to the needs of the inhabitant,” Giffin said of the movement.
“I can see how a home can be this kind of catalyst for people to really put their lives back together on a lot of different levels,” he added.
The Inniss family was one of 10 grant recipients from Project Tiny Home, and 6 grants are still available.
Eligible applicants must be US citizens who intend to live in the tiny house full time, pre-qualified for financing, and must be working with a builder approved by Operation Tiny Home, according to the company’s website.
Applicants must also be struggling with hardship, like homelessness as a result of a natural disaster or aging out of foster care, or they must be a community hero, such as a teacher or someone who works in law enforcement.
You can read more about the application qualifications on Operation Tiny Home’s website.
"I love it when people walk into a tiny home for the first time and realize how livable the space can be," Rapport said of her work.
Giffin explained that tiny homes can “address such a wide spectrum of issues.”
“Here’s a tool that will actually have a big impact on the housing crisis, on the economy, on protecting ourselves from another housing downturn,” he added. “It’s a real solution and it’s within our grasp.”
You can learn more about Project Tiny Home here.
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