A Tiffy Taffy Highlight Story: Sometimes there are stories that are just too good, too beautiful, or too unbelievable to keep locked away. That’s why we scour the archives and bring some of them back to enjoy again. They may make you smile or shed a tear, but they’re always meant to add a little positivity to your day. This story is from April 2016. Enjoy!
With the rise in the price of housing, tiny homes have been all the rage. And honestly, the idea definitely has a lot of merit to it. One of the advantages that such homes provide is a major decrease in carbon footprints. Also, these homes are way easier to maintain. One would also have to spend less time taking care of the house. So, you could easily focus on the landscape where your house is built upon. Now, most of these homes are usually used as secondary homes. And these secondary homes belong to those who have the money to purchase them. Therefore, one should assume that usually, miniature homes fetch a hefty price.
But yet again, there are good samaritans among us. One such story was in 2016, about samaritan Carmen Guidi, the founder of Second Wind Village in Newfield. He has been in the industry of creating tiny homes at minimum rates. Interestingly, this village has been built on the repairman’s own turf. The Second Wind Village, for those who are unaware, is a collection of miniature homes for the homeless men of Ithaca. This brilliant idea hit him while he was on a couple of Goodwill trips to disaster-hit regions of Haiti and Honduras. Now, Guidi has made himself pretty clear- he doesn’t really know a lot about tiny living. Nevertheless, he does want to live like that as well- for the charm is definitely there.
Tiny Homes For The Homeless In Ithaca
According to Guidi, he didn’t know much about tiny homes, but he just needed to get started. “I knew nothing about a tiny home anything. Once we started putting together these ‘tiny houses’, I know I would like to live that way if I was that, and that’s why these men do so well here.” Guidi said.
Now, one can easily agree with the sentiment that a man also needs his dignity. While providing a roof could seem enough, that wouldn’t make him want to live. Speaking about the homes, Guidi states, “They give the men a level of dignity that they can’t get anywhere else. Even though they don’t own the houses, they still take ownership, they take pride around the surroundings. Here’s the thing, they want to stay in a community, yet they want to have their own time, too, in their own space.”
Guidi has also been a regular visitor to The Jungle. This is a remote area that connects the land of tiny homes with some of the popular establishments of Ithaca. Needless to say, Guidi is pretty surprised seeingly the number of people who can’t afford to live like others. But this hasn’t stopped him from doing what he is doing. On the contrary, this has led to him offering them the food and the supplies that they obviously require. One of the driving factors behind this has been his desire to restore the homeless people their dignity.
Guidi Has Major Plans Of Improving On The Earlier Tiny Homes
Guidi also has plans of building tiny homes for homeless women and children. But these will be built in a completely separate location. The Director of the Urban Renewal Agency, Nels Bohn, has also mentioned that Guidi has collaborated with multiple agencies for this purpose. As it stands, all the 40 emergency shelters in the city have all the resources that are required to take care of the homeless. Bohn has also spoken about the requirement for the homeless people to get some solution to their issues. “People come with a lot of issues that they have to work through. They worked their way down to homelessness, they need to work their way back out of homelessness.”
Keep Reading: The reason one teacher has kept an empty chair in his classroom for 50 years
Sources
- “Tiny houses have big impact for homeless.” Youtube. Innovation Trail. April 18, 2016.
