Building New Housing at Mount Calvary Lutheran: New Creation Village
Mount Calvary Lutheran Church of Soquel has long been dedicated to housing the homeless and recently entered into a partnership with Just Places LLC to build permanent, green housing on-site for people coming out of homelessness, in a collaborative, village atmosphere with a community center. The project will use the latest building science and renewable building techniques: strawbale, natural plaster, and passive solar, thereby creating an example of how to care for the environment and our community. Straw is the #1 construction material for sequestering carbon! The straw will store carbon for the life of the building, expected to last 100 years, pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere now, when we need it the most.
It will be comprised of 6 tiny homes, a community center and kitchen, and three 2-story buildings hosting studios, 1 bedroom apartments, and 2 bedroom apartments.
Just Places has the experience and expertise to pull off this visionary project. Our LLC includes Boa Constructor, a local leader in Green Building, along with Buckeye Natural Builders, other general contractors experienced with green building practices, and People First of Santa Cruz County, a California 501c(3) that manages facilities for people without permanent homes in Santa Cruz County including the Armory Shelter. People First will provide onsite community building and case management for residents.
The facility’s common areas will allow for shared cooking, meals, socializing, and chores that contribute to building community. Community development is an important aspect of moving people out of homelessness.
The facility is within one-half mile of a bus stop, groceries, banks, a donut shop, a hardware store, and Cabrillo College.
Mount Calvary Lutheran Church has partnered with Just Places, a program partnered with the non-profit housing and social services agency, People First of Santa Cruz County. Just Places is committed to the building of small, naturally built housing for very low and extremely low-income individuals and families who are coming out of homelessness. Through Just Places’ association with talented professionals in the natural building community, Arkin Tilt Architects offered to join the process for the Mt. Calvery project. Arkin Tilt is an award-winning firm specializing in energy and resource-efficient design. Two phases of development are proposed on the Mt. Calvary church property:
PHASE 1: Caretakers Cabins
As a part of its ministry’s mission, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church has been housing 6 previously houseless caretakers in unpermitted, volunteer-built structures, and a trailer, for several years. There is currently a red tag on the cabins. The current residents in these cabins use the kitchen and bathroom facilities in the church. Just Places is proposing, with approval from the County Building Department, to replace the existing redtagged units with 6 naturally built code compliant units. These units would be small in size (around 150-190 square feet) depending on County requirements. These new units would not include bathrooms or kitchens as the residents would continue to be dependent upon having access to the Church’s existing kitchen and bathroom facilities until Phase 2 is developed. These units would be made available, as a priority, to the residents who are currently living on site. Any other code related improvements related to the current red tag or required by the County would be included as a part of this Phase I work so that the Church is relieved of the current red tag situation. Just Places has received some grant funding from the Central California Alliance for Health and the remaining costs will be fundraised to complete this phase. At least initially, the residents in 5 of the new units would continue to be tenants of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church.
PHASE 2: Independent Units/Community Building
After Phase 1 is complete, the next phase is to build 9 -10 small naturally built and County approved apartment units with their own bathing and cooking facilities. This phase would also include a community building with laundry for all residents and common bathroom and kitchen facilities for the 6 Caretaker Cabin residents from Phase I. This 9-10 unit development comprising of studios, 1 bedroom, and 2 bedroom apartment homes will be designed to meet the Housing Authority’s requirements to qualify for the Section-8 voucher program. This phase of the project will be located on a parcel of the Church property that will be leased on a long-term basis to Just Places. Just Places and their partner, People First of Santa Cruz County, will take on full responsibility for the property management and the provision of social services to the residents. This land lease and the provision of property management and social services may also be expanded to include the 6 units built under Phase I. Just Places will raise the remaining funding required for Phase 2 and will be responsible to over see the design and development of the individual units, the common facilities, and any site and utility improvements required. The provision of social services and property management will be provided by Just Places on an ongoing basis, in collaboration with Mt. Calvary.
