County to Join Forces With Not-For-Profit to Build Tiny Homes City to Join Force With Non-For-Profit to Build Tiny Homes

That’s Andrew speaking with one of the most dedicated volunteers, Brady.

“A year and a half ago he was a stray, all skin and bones, and he just ran up on and I started feeding him and he wouldn’t leave me alone so I ended up keeping him”

Brady’s just another part of the operation. An operation that’s Andrew has been there for every step of.

“I had very limited experience building coming into it. I had done painting projects and very light framing but so much of it was learning on the job, learning through YouTube asking people who knew more than me, coming in very humble.”

The build at 215 Slocum Avenue is destined to be a three-unit dwelling with laundry included for all the inhabitants to use. Lunetta explained that the units are small by design, but still have everything someone needs to live.

Lunetta has been involved locally with homelessness ever since he was an underclassman at LeMoyne, volunteering his time at the Oxford Street Inn.

“And then when I was a sophomore at LeMoyne they hired me on staff there so I was working three or four nights a week at the homeless shelter, and that’s where I started developing a real interest and love in what I’m doing today.”

He says that working with people who face homelessness has always been comfortable for him.

“It just felt right. Like I would go down to the shelter and spend hours talking with the guys there, and I felt way more confident talking with those guys than I ever did at a party in college or anything like that.”

He also said that it didn’t take long for him to notice a recurring theme in the shelter that he worked at.

“All of it was around that experience working at the shelter, and seeing the same guys cycle in and out of the shelter on an almost monthly basis. They move out of the shelter more into a terrible apartment and then in a matter of months or weeks move back to the shelter, and everyone just described that all they wanted was a small space and their own space and I felt that a tiny home kind of fit that bill.”

People that he was close with and people that understood the problem in depth bought into the idea instantly.

“Like they knew that affordable safe housing was the answer to ending homelessness. But when you kind of opened it up and looked at how you tangibly do it, there were a lot of roadblocks.”

He said he didn’t really anticipate how much of the construction he’d end up doing himself. From drilling to cutting drywall, to simply being on site to oversee the operations, Andrew works tireless with the volunteers and spends the majority of his own time at work on site.

“Like there’s no way I would have been able to start a restaurant, I don’t know shit about cooking or anything and people would recognize that right away. But I knew a lot about homelessness and I knew the answer on how to end it for a lot of people. And people saw that and people believed that.”

His work has caught the attention of many locally, including County Executive Ryan McMahon

“Yeah, it’s just nice to see the county recognize that it’s an answer to end homelessness. Because really, they’re footing the bill of the shelters and a lot of the people having to stay in hotels if the shelters are full.”

With at least seven new dwellings set to open up this year in Syracuse, Lunetta is excited for the future of A Tiny Home for Good.

“Hey we have some of the nicest houses on the block now, they’re well maintained, they’re raising property values around them.”

With 2020 marking the fifth year since Tiny Homes opened their doors, Lunetta hopes to keep opening more doors, all across the city.

Luca Serio, NCC News.