“For the cost of a new SUV, a fellow human being stayed warm and dry in our city during the storm. Meanwhile, that Friday afternoon, I read that another human being had frozen to death on the streets of Memphis. Again. My heart sank. My face dropped. My fingers began to type. Our time here is never guaranteed. For some people it’s way too tiny. For some people, Homes for Hearts’ tiny houses are too tiny. For our residents, it’s just right.

Memphis’ buses are not equipped to handle bad weather. Maybe the man who froze to death on the streets in Midtown needed a ride. Maybe that night, he lay there dreaming of a home. Maybe he was waiting on a bus and gave up. We’ll never know. But I will tell you what our city does know. And I will tell you what our city is equipped with. We have the tools and the knowledge to build. Every tiny house we build can keep one more Memphis heart warm and well. Every life tells a story. And ours is just beginning.

Our first resident and I have stayed in great contact since his move-in, and to first handedly see and hear of his adjustment to this new neighborhood and tiny house is truly heartwarming. He told me about how welcoming all the neighbors have been. This is the Memphis I know. A community seeking community. A man seeking a house and finding a home. A man sleeping on a mattress in a heated house, rather than on a park bench in the freezing rain while a thunderstorm erupts all around him, because the Memphis community came together to build a new opportunity. But, this has been beyond difficult for him. Difficult to know that he is warm, while his other friends living on the streets are still going without. December, 2021, we sat in the tiny house as he spoke of what was killing him. As we sat in the 280 sf tiny home, he pointed to the door, corners of the room, the spot where I was sitting and the spot he was sitting, and said, “It’s killing me to know I can’t bring my friends over here and offer them a spot in the house to lay tonight.”

Hearing his words, seeing his face as we sat in the smallest house permitted in Shelby County has rained fuel on my fire to continue connecting Memphis to build as many tiny homes across our city as possible for those experiencing homelessness.

As I sat at Room in the Inn and spoke with our next 2 potential residents and told them it would be at least 6 months before we had the next 2 homes built, a storm tore through my stomach.

The need in our city is so tremendous that not even the loudest thunderstorm could shake it. You are probably reading this in a chair, under a roof, comfortable as we all should be. I am, as I shake, writing this, hoping that these words reach the right person, corporation, foundation to raise our first million dollars for Memphis.” – Zach Waters, Founder, Executive Director