Group seeks to create village of tiny homes
By Angie Landsverk
HUB Ministries wants to create a tiny house village in the Waupaca area.
It unveiled its plan earlier this month, during an informational meeting at Waupaca’s South Park.
“We’re in the process of looking, but haven’t picked a site yet. We want support and cooperation to find one,” Mark Pfundter told the approximately 50 people in attendance.
He is a member of the group’s board of directors.
The board wants to include local governments in the conversation and has already pitched the idea to some Waupaca city officials.
“Once we have a location, we can come back with a site plan,” Pfundter said. “Then we would be looking for support to make it self supportive.”
Board member Becca Mortensen said a purpose of the informational meeting was to see whether anyone already knows of possible sites.
Those involved in the ministry have varied backgrounds and experiences.
Pfundter has a background in general contracting and development.
“I’ve spent most of my life working in housing,” he said.
The proposed village would be a cooperative community.
“This is not a short-term homeless shelter. This is not a church. This is not a food pantry,” Pfundter said. “We do not want to duplicate. We want to take them to the next level.”
His wife Ann was a social worker and is also on the board.
She believes a critical component of the plan is to create a village where the residents support each other.
Board member Dana Swisher said, “It would be a hub, a resource not only for housing but where help is in a central place.”
The village would have a common space for meetings, workshops and shared learning.
Board members hope people from the community would share their gifts, teaching carpentry skills and more.
The village could also have gardens.
Those living in the tiny homes would be able to cook meals together in the shared space’s kitchen, if they wished.
Their idea is several years in the making.
Bob Hall is also a member of the board of directors and the one building the model tiny house.
He is the co-founder of Wee Build LLC, and has a background in architectural design and carpentry.
It was Hall who had the idea for such a village.
He was put in contact with Robin Madson, who then contacted others, including Swisher and the Pfundters.
“For the last year and a half, we’ve been meeting,” Madson said.
After establishing a board, bylaws, vision and mission, they believed they “need to start doing,” she said.
Swisher said she has experienced homelessness and the need to find affordable housing.
“The idea that we don’t need something like this is just unrealistic,” she said.
In larger communities, tiny house villages have been built for veterans and the homeless, Mortensen said.
The one being proposed here would not have set qualifications, she said.
“We don’t have a particular population to serve. We will serve whoever God brings into our lives,” Madson said. “There’s a lot of different scenarios it could be.”
Board members visited the tiny village in Madison, where schools and volunteers build the outer shell and those who want to live in one build the interior with assistance.
HUB Ministries would like to bring that concept here.
When someone remarked it sounds much like Habitat for Humanity, Hall said the difference is a community would be built here in which the people living within it are able to help each other.
It could be a model for other rural communities.
“Right now we’re trying to get one village started. It’s something new for a place the size of Waupaca. It’s common in larger communities,” Pfundter said.
HUB Ministries is in the process of applying for nonprofit status and has not yet resolved who would own the property where the village is built.
Swisher said they want to be a solution for creating affordable housing.
“We want to be fair. We want to be good neighbors to you, to Waupaca as a whole,” she said.
Swisher said the tiny houses in the cooperative community would not all look exactly the same.
“People living there will want to personalize them,” she said. “We don’t know who will end up in them.”
Visit www.hubministriesinc.com for more information about the group.