Augusta’s first tiny home community is a go at a former city park on Merry Street.
Bridge Builder Communities plans to break ground in mid-2024 on a 25-unit complex for youth aging out of the foster care system, officials with the nonprofit said Wednesday.
Founder Jackson Drumgoole said as a child, seeing his cousins shuffled through the foster care system and emerging broken inspired him to look for solutions.
Forty years ago, “they were taken away from their homes and family and scattered all over the United States,” said Drumgoole, head of Drumgoole Family Initiatives and a retired Army strategic force manager.
“They suffered from mental health struggles, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse – and frankly, none of them have ever recovered, and I have never forgotten.”
Augusta’s first tiny home community hasn’t been without controversy. City officials initially resisted adopting a tiny home ordinance but eventually approved one that allowed the homes in small groups.
Bridge Builder’s acquisition of the long-unused city park on Merry Street, near Central Avenue, also drew complaints from nearby landowners who wanted to buy the site. The Augusta Commission approved the transfer of the park and 16 other parcels to the land bank on July 14, 2021 after a closed-door session.
The nonprofit managed care organization Caresource is taking an active role in the Bridge Builder community and announced a $50,000 contribution Wednesday.
“Our hope is through investing in an effort like this, we can all begin to make it better for the kids that exit foster care, to provide them with the supports they need and with the housing and the wraparound services that will help them address the things that they’ve been through,” said Bobby Cagle, the newly-hired Georgia executive director for child welfare for Caresource.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson, who pushed for the tiny home ordinance and affordable housing options, told Bridge Builders “we are standing in solidarity with what you are doing here.”
He added later added “this project is building a brighter future for those who need it most.”
The organization will continue its fundraising drive of about $50,000 per tiny home, or $2.5 million. The homes will be grouped in pods of five 320-square-foot units, each with its own kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.
Kathy Gambill, wife of project architect Joe Gambill with MPS Architecture, said the five-unit pods give each resident a sense of community as well as privacy.
“They tend to isolate because they’ve had a lot of noise in their life,” Gambill said. “This way, they have a little community.”
The complex will be fenced and have a live-in care manager. The young-adult-aged residents will remain in the foster care system during their stay to retain access to those services. Residents aren’t allowed to have pets, children or overnight guests, she said.
With Augusta Tech President Jermaine Whirl on its board, residents will have a pipeline to educational services using a nearby bus route to Augusta Tech, she said.
