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TINY HOUSES COMING FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE IN AKRON OHIO. Part 2/5 Yesterday, I discussed who might be good candidates for living in the tiny houses Akron’s mayor Shammas Malik is proposing. Today, I want to discuss who might be good candidates for running the tiny houses. Fox8 interviewed Georgann Mirgliotta as part of their piece on this tiny house initiative. I thought it was very interesting that they chose her for the interview. She has always wanted to build a village for homeless people. Her charity, Hope Farm, is a manifestation of this dream. This is what the Hope Farm Facebook intro says: “Our vision at Hope Farm is to create a community in which our homeless friends can gain freedom to live with dignity, purpose and security.” Because of that, I think she should be a top candidate for the role. Nothing is a more potent driver for success than a passionate desire to achieve a dream. Georgann has been an avid and long-time supporter of the Akron homeless community. She has put on a Wednesday dinner in Middlebury for years. She goes out into the woods every Monday, I believe, with hot coffee and food. She is the real deal. The most important aspect of that is that she knows the complicated nature of homeless people. They, like all people, will let you down over and over again. Most people leave this volunteer work because they can’t emotionally take the letdowns. Georgann clearly can. She’s not going to walk away. She also interviews really well, as seen in this most recent Fox8 video. That is really important as we sell this idea for tiny house growth to city council and Akron’s residents. She, Ashleigh Wilson and I spent a week at Community First Village in Austin several years ago at their symposium. We all learned a great deal about how they run that community. It was a really valuable training series. I don’t know if they still offer that since Covid. But I definitely recommend others from Akron to attend if it’s still available. Her Christian faith highly drives her. That can have pros and cons. Some homeless people love that, and some don’t. We have pagan witches in the homeless community as well as atheists and Muslims. Sometimes these faiths get in the way of the work. We also have sex workers that are challenging for some Christian supporters. I feel like Georgann’s faith lives in the background for the most part. She is here to serve, and that is what is most important to her. I have never seen any evidence of her judging or withholding services because of faith differences. I just think this awareness is important for a city that potentially is going to partner with a group on this initiative. A group like the Peter Maurin Center has a lot of name recognition and funds. I don’t know if they are interested in doing this work. But they run the emergency winter shelter, so they have some experience doing this. They came to me when we very first started our main tent village and supported us for a long time. They had created a blueprint for a village before I came along. But they never acted on it. They eventually denounced me because they didn’t like that I was sheltering drug users. Community Support Services (CSS) has a great logistical team in place. But they actively fought me every inch of the way for thinking about non-traditional shelter options. If they are interested in this all of a sudden it’s probably because they see dollar signs. I don’t know of other good candidates. They certainly could exist but they aren’t on my radar. And that then comes to me. Should I run the village? The idea thrills me. This is the beginning evolution of everything I have fought for all these years. The very first proposal I sent to the city was for a tiny house village. I didn’t actually want tents. But they told me that they were never going to support it and the housing code rules would make it very easy to turn down. So I then pivoted to tents. If you look at the Ohio code on campgrounds you’ll see that a campground is only a campground if you charge people to stay there. I didn’t charge any money so I created this confusing loophole. I think that was why I got to run it for 2 solid years. They didn’t know what to do with me. They eventually forced me to ask for a variance to have an actual campground. That went to city council and the zoning board and was universally shut down. We tried to take it to the Ohio Supreme Court. But they never heard our case. Akron’s Housing Administrator, Duane Groeger, told me he could have shut us down in a month because the code says people can’t live in places like hotels for more than 30 days. I don’t know if Malik is going to face that kind of pushback or not. I suppose Duane will just do what he’s told. He seems to like that job for some reason. It looks like a cold and brutal job to me. He mostly just throws poor people out on the street and tears down the houses they own. All that to say, I would consider it a great honor to be asked to participate in this process in any way. I would dutifully and passionately work to make this a success with every bone in my body. But I don’t need it to make my life complete. I am much more passionate about the lowest rung of humans on the streets of Akron. The people that I love the most would likely end up burning down the village within the first year. They are nowhere near ready for something like a city-sanctioned 5-unit tiny house village. They would definitely not be good candidates for this pilot project. My people are the most beautiful people I have ever met. They are the pure, raw, wild, passionate, boiled-down essence of what a human being truly is. And they are completely misunderstood by mostly everyone else. It’s like they are a Basquiat painting, and no one understands what they are looking at. I’m the art dealer trying to sell you on the undiscovered brilliance of Basquiat in the late 70s. This new tiny house pilot project is a Thomas Kinkade store in the mall. It’s shiny and beautiful and lovely, and I would take the job. But truthfully, it’s not my driving passion. And look, if I become a company man most of this transparent analysis goes away. I’m not an activist anymore. I’m not going to tell you exactly what I think about all these people and organizations. I think there is some value in that position. Maybe I could be an outside consultant if anyone cares about my perspective. But I’m sure there are many people who have many good ideas. I’m really interested in this homeless maker space I’m working on. And I have a long-term vision for a super low barrier, non-religious shelter that I’m piecing together in my mind. If I were Shammas Malik, I’d choose Georgann Mirgliotta if she wants it. Here are the 5 parts of this series: Part1: https://www.facebook.com/sagelewis71/posts/pfbid02qdKpvQUokYjhNCQFB2vNwZMu23jEP1GyEjPJX3b3NgmRsJPb2TcmWn1q6cGnCepml Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/sagelewis71/posts/pfbid0VJBepBsDjhvVsq5VPpxJi4Q1Y9Bkd3jFLkBj98bhy27r7wKWSZUBz3EH9M3MF1Ecl Part 3: https://www.facebook.com/sagelewis71/posts/pfbid0yGif9DxrXXMBefQ4FQKAQSmgTnwxebYGHituxAdShb1AEcdghkrB8NDzhBZqkTdNl Part 4: https://www.facebook.com/sagelewis71/posts/pfbid0YURT3Kk7jmH5PDh5a7eurrtAWWehbjUx3ZMh9RzK2ic3i9AgzzUJMHjKo8iuhohXl Part 5: https://www.facebook.com/sagelewis71/posts/pfbid0moxWt4AuDaKUYfdQZ6QjaSpr66gFv8j6oD8Uav2MptGiZ9mxBKyq1aXGQSp5N9qdl