SUMTER, S.C. — Tiny homes are being built in Sumter right now to help people in need. A local nonprofit has been working on the project for about five years and is putting the finishing touches on the buildings.
“That is amazing,” Sumter resident Eda Wilfahrt said. “And especially here, people need it. It’s needed in the community for sure.”
Wilfahrt moved to Sumter from California a year ago and likes the idea of tiny homes helping people in her area.
“I love it. I love it because you know, it could be me. It could be me one day who knows,” Wilfahrt, who is originally from Turkey, said. “And it's needed because I remember especially the people who come from another country like me, you know, when they come here they get the culture shock and they struggle financially too. And I see firsthand from one of my friends, but this is amazing. This is amazing. I really appreciate it.”
Mark Champagne is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Sumter United Ministries, which he says has been working on these homes for years.
“This is one of the best things that’s ever happened. We've been waiting a long time for this. We've been using buildings since 2010 for a shelter, and it’s typically been buildings that were not designed to be shelters, so we've had to make them work,” Champagne said. “We actually started this 2018, and it was a three-phase construction project…But hopefully, it's been well worth the wait because it looks great. Everything's coming out wonderful, and we're excited.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed construction, Champagne says the project is finally nearing completion. The buildings are right behind the nonprofit’s main building on Artillery Drive, which accepts food and clothing donations and has a medical clinic and pharmacy.
“Guests that come to our shelter that can use our clinic, it’s right here, the resources to help them get jobs, to help them get connected with transportation and healthcare, just a lot of different things,” Champagne said. “We're excited, it's a game changer.”
Champagne says the homes will be furnished with one or two bunk beds, “a small little dinette table and mini fridge,” a microwave, a closet area and a full bathroom.
Gabriel Pogue is a volunteer at Sumter United Ministries and said he stays “very busy.”
“Pretty much every day we’re getting in new stuff to organize, and usually every day we're giving out that same stuff,” Pogue said.
He’s been volunteering with the organization for six months after leaving the military.
“When I was in the military, I needed a lot of help,” Pogue said. “And that's why I ended up leaving. And I feel like in my position, I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own. Like I needed help from a lot of people. And I think just being in this community and working here and giving my time I'm seeing how many other people are in that position I was in six months ago, so it means a lot.”
Pogue says he’s looking forward to seeing the tiny homes serve people, as well as the traditional shelter being constructed next to the homes.
“Affordable housing has gotten very difficult to find right now,” Champagne said. “We get older folks now when they can't stay in their homes, they're out. And if you have a full time job, most full time jobs just, you know, working retail and things like that, they don't pay enough to rent now.”
Champagne says the larger building next to the five tiny homes will hold a maximum of 38 people. Women will be on one side of the building, and men on the other. There are seven separate dorm rooms, each with four, six or 10 beds.
“The main building, the main shelter we’re going to operate the same way we do now. It's open from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning, it's a night shelter, and people just really…here they'll need to just be able to show because we'll have much more bed capacity,” Champagne said. “Now the tiny houses give us a little more flexibility because those are more for transitional type situations. So that might allow someone that's, you know, wants to get training. If they wanted to go to Central Carolina, USC, Morris College and get educated so they can train to get a better job, better-paying job, hopefully, that will give them time to do that so they can spend a year and a half in there if they wanted to.”
“If it was somebody that might work third shift, we don't help third shift people too well because we're closed during the day,” Champagne continued. “We can work some things out to potentially be able to allow somebody to come in for that as well. In rare instances, we really could potentially take in a family. We can't call ourselves a family shelter ‘cuz we’re not even close to that. And if we did that, we would just fill it up and I don't think we would be as effective as we could be. So in some instances, we may be able to do that with the addition of tiny houses. So that's also very exciting.”
According to the current project timeline, Champagne says the goal is for these buildings to be finished by the end of June.
Champagne says the funding for this project came from individual donations, a foundation’s trust donation and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)money through the City of Sumter.
“There's some people that really care about folks in this community, they will step up and help. That's how this ministry works,” Champagne shared. “We have a very small staff, way more volunteers that do the work. So we're just kind of blessed to be here. God's been faithful. We just try to be faithful as well.”
When it comes to the future, Champagne says he hopes to be able to continue improving homes in the Sumter community outside of the buildings on the ministry’s campus.
“We have so many people in this community, their homes are in not great condition. So I have to throw this in as well: we're trying to go after that as well so we prevent it so we don’t have people coming in the shelter,” Champagne said. “My hope is that someday that we would have the option to be able to actually demo some homes and rebuild new smaller homes, not tiny houses, but smaller homes and some in the community that will last longer and they'll have a little better appeal on you know, visually and all that as well.”
Champagne’s priority list also includes mental health resources, transportation improvements and continuing to form relationships with community members.
“As this ministry continues to grow, and we have other things that are beginning to grow even more, we're going to need some more help,” Champagne said. “And this community has several churches. The churches are amazing. That's how this ministry was formed. We typically have close to 60 churches that support us financially and then others that also have sent volunteers but may not financially. But it takes the community for this ministry to work. It was a grassroots ministry to start with, and it really still is, it's just much bigger.”