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Tiny Homes Making Bold Statement In Housing For Low-Income

DETROIT (CBSDetroit) - A new focus on making the American dream of home ownership accessible across economic classes.

Cass Community Social Services will be building a couple dozen tiny homes--between 250 and 400 square feet in the Lodge Freeway and Monterey area.

The homes, 25 in all, will go to formerly homeless men and women, senior citizens who qualify based on income, and students who have aged out of  the foster care system says Rev. Faith Fowler.

They are not cookie-cutter houses -- every house has it's own style and design notes Fowler. "Every home is different so there's a Cape Cod, a colonial, a Victorian, a Tutor and an environmental house and each has a distinctive feature so the residents will have a sense of pride in their home."

The houses are being built by both professional trades people and volunteer teams who will manage the finishing jobs – tiling, dry walling, painting, gardening, building decks and erecting fences.

"There is no mortgage," says Fowler. "So it gives a chance for really low-income people -- people who make $10,000 a year or $12,000 a year to become a homeowner - with all the dignity and pride that implies, but also the asset it is - that most poor people get locked out of."

She says after seven years of paying rent (at a dollar per square foot) and utilities on time the renters can become homeowners of their tiny house.

Find more information on Tiny Homes Progressive and volunteer opportunities at: Cass Community Social Services.

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