The Solution Agenda: Now that's an anniversary gift

A local nonprofit is getting ready to open Tucson's first tiny home village ... Plans to grow its support for underserved youths are far from over ... Latino voters on the rise.

Tin or aluminum are the traditional presents to celebrate a 10-year-anniversary, but one local nonprofit is commemorating the occasion by gifting Tucson its very first tiny home village.

I Am You 360 was started in 2014 by Desiree Cook. It supports kids and teens in foster care through custom personal hygiene products, mentoring, life skills training and short-term housing.

In March 2023, Cook broke ground on a tiny home village for 18 to 22-year-olds transitioning out of the foster care system, set to become the first of its kind in town.

With nine 450-square-foot, eco-friendly tiny homes, a community gathering center and garden, the property will serve as a safe haven and allow residents to pay rent that will be put into a savings account that can later be used for a down payment.

Despite multiple setbacks including hundreds of thousands of dollars in vandalism and theft, which we wrote about in November, the finish line is in sight and Cook is looking to host a ribbon cutting in the fall.

“We hit a two-month brick wall and I was frustrated and fearful of the unknown,” Cook told Caitlin “But the floodgates opened. Now that the funds are locked in, we can just sail in this great momentum.”

Work is almost complete on I Am You 360’s tiny home experience, which are expected to be move-in ready this fall. Caitlin Schmidt / Tucson Agenda.

Cook began offering sponsorships of the homes to help fund critical pieces like roofs, walls, doors and windows. Groups, including Christ Presbyterian Church and One AZ Credit Union, and individual donors quickly stepped up. Last month, a Phoenix-based foundation signed on to adopt the remaining two homes.

Work is underway on the interior of the homes, including insulation, drywall and flooring. The next step is landscaping, which Cook believes will be primarily funded through in-kind donations and sweat equity. She’s also hoping the community will step up to help furnish the homes through the group’s Amazon wishlist, which includes small appliances, bedding, dishes and more.

“This is a community project. We all win in investing in this unique, historical project,” she said. “People can drive by morning, noon and night and say, ‘I helped with this project and impacted an underserved population in a unique way with solutions.’”

Cook said the tiny home experience is especially powerful because it will have a generational impact on the people involved.

The village’s future residents chose their own homes, with Cook saying she wanted them to have their own voice in the process.

“This is a whole new experience for us all. We wanted them to be just as engaged,” Cook said. “This makes it even more personal and sets us apart, as well.”

And with a group chat that includes future residents of the tiny home village, Cook is able to keep them updated every step of the way.

“As we’re making progress, they’re in the know. That’s really important,” she said.

The residents were selected from I Am You 360’s 10-unit rental property. When they move into the tiny home experience, nine new young adults will be selected to live in the rental property.

“That will be 19 kids off the street and safe and thriving,” Cook said.

Once the tiny home experience is up and running, Cook and I Am You 360 will be taking a break from the development game. She said it’s really important to collect the proper data in order to prove the model is an evidence-based success, so the plan is to take a breather and focus on some smaller projects.

With no plans to build again until 2026, the group is looking to set up a laundromat for foster youth and unhoused middle and high school kids. Tutors and computers will be available on site as part of an after-school program, with Cook calling it a “clean clothes empowerment station.”

“As they’re doing their laundry, they can be invested in (by the community,)” she said. 

Cook’s hopeful that I Am You 360 will receive a third American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Tucson, which she wants to use to purchase the rental property.

With two properties under her belt, Cook is a long way from where she started when she launched I Am You 360. The group just hosted its first drive-up hygiene drive a few weekends ago and has plans to repeat the event every other month.

And with a “stuff the van” planned for September and a handful of other events in the works, Cook will be staying plenty busy, even without a construction project to oversee.

“It took blood, sweat and tears, but we made it,” she said. “These are the huge leaps of trying to impact our community.”

---

This story was supported by the Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona, a fund of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

Our ability to grow our coverage depends on readers like you. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

Who needs a living wage? A Maricopa County Superior Court judge rejected a motion to block a public vote on a plan by restaurants that would pay tipped workers less in hourly wages, Arizona Capitol Times’ Howard Fischer writes. Proposition 138 will appear on the November ballot and if approved, would let restaurants pay tipped employees 25% below minimum wage. With the current minimum wage set at $14.35, that would bring hourly wages down to $10.76 for tipped employees, less than the $11.35 per hour they currently receive.

Win win: Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate should come as a relief to Sen. Mark Kelly, the Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock writes. By continuing his work as a “pack mule of a U.S. senator,” Kelly is doing the job the way he wants, winning elections and gets to stay in Arizona. That’s a better life than the one he’d live if he’d been tapped as vice president.

“He doesn't have to land in three states each day and shake down moneybags for cold hard cash,” Morlock writes. “He won't be trailed by an annoying press pool, confronted with the latest right-wing trash poll showing his ticket down eight in Michigan.”

Growing force: Arizona’s Latino voter population has more than doubled since 2020, with the state having the fourth largest population of eligible voters in the U.S., Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. The findings from University of California Los Angeles’ Latino Policy and Politics Institute show that Latino-eligible voters make up about 25% of the state’s electorate. It’s projected that 17 million Latinos in the country will turn out to vote in November, a 6% increase from 2020 and a 40% increase from 2016.

Deadline looming: More than 20 dogs in the care of Lucy’s Hope Rescue and Sanctuary are at risk of euthanasia, KVOA’s Chorus Nylander reports. We wrote about the rescue’s closure a few weeks ago, and on Sunday, the group posted a message to Facebook denying rumors of a mass euthanasia. Nylander spoke to officials at Pinal County Animal Control who said they told Lucy’s Hope owner Ben Garagazloo that euthanasia was a possibility for the 11 dogs being transferred into the shelter’s care.

Delayed notice: U.S. Customs and Border Protection released information this week on two separate, months-old deadly incidents that happened near Lukeville, the Arizona Daily Star reports. In February, a pregnant woman from Angola lost her newborn baby after her care was delayed because border agents weren’t able to understand her, thinking she was speaking French. A month later, a man died after jumping from a moving car when agents began following it for suspected human smuggling. Both incidents are under investigation.

Back and better than ever: Amphi schools are back in session, with a handful of key changes, KGUN’s Bri Pacelli reports. The district has rolled out preschool programs at all elementary and high schools, with students enrolled in the early childhood education class receiving hands-on training in the preschools. The district’s school bus system is fully staffed, with 48 routes and drivers, and there’s a new bus tracking app to help parents know where their child is when they’re on their way to and from school.

164: The number of people ages 18 through 24 experiencing homelessness on the night of January 24, 2024, according to the 2024 Tucson/Pima County Point in Time Count.