By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Even as a freshman at Le Moyne College back in 2008, Andrew Lunetta devoted his free time to helping the homeless. He hosted weekly sandwich-making sessions in his residence hall and went on to found Pedal to Possibilities, which provided bicycles and group rides for homeless Central New Yorkers. After graduation, he signed a lease on a home on Syracuse’s South Side and invited three homeless friends to move in.
Soon, Lunetta will be able to house even more people in need. A Tiny Home for Good, which he founded in 2014, is building 300-square-foot homes to help homeless veterans get back on their feet. Construction on the first two-house unit on Rose Avenue in Syracuse, which began around Easter, is on track to be finished by the end of May.
“June 1 is when we’d like to see people moved in,” Lunetta said.
Lunetta, a graduate of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, splits his time between working part-time at Catholic Charities’ men’s shelter and managing A Tiny Home for Good. He and his supporters raised $3,000 to purchase a vacant lot on Rose Avenue in Syracuse, where he is building two housing units.
“A lot of the funding comes from people who have supported my work in the past,” Lunetta said.
Helping hands
A Tiny Home for Good is also receiving support from Operation Northern Comfort, a Liverpool-based nonprofit that is contributing funding and access to its base of volunteers. ONC also let Lunetta store the assembled walls for his tiny homes in the ONC warehouse until he could begin construction.
“They’ve been really helpful. They reached out to us … just looking to do good work,” Lunetta said. “I think they were intrigued by the project.”
Lunetta has not lacked for volunteers. He said about 25 people have participated in constructing the tiny homes, and sometimes he feels bad about not having enough work to go around for additional volunteers who have approached him.
“I’m just so proud of him,” said Cathy Lunetta, Andrew’s mother. “To see his dream come true is very exciting.”
Last week, a group of students from SUNY-ESF spent their spring break working on the tiny homes. Rachel Rigolosi said she had seen a poster for the alternative spring break project and thought it looked fun.
“I think it’s really important to help the Syracuse community,” Rigolosi said. “Going to school right across the highway, it’s really easy to be stuck in your own bubble in college.”
Rigolosi is no stranger to community service; her entire freshman class at ESF helped clean up Syracuse parks. She plans to continue her involvement with A Tiny Home for Good as well.
“It’s so great seeing the whole [construction] process. I’m excited to see people move in,” she said. “Whenever Andrew needs help, he should just let us know.”
The next step
For many homeless people, area agencies can meet their immediate needs, but affordable housing is out of reach.
“The emergency services of Catholic Charities and the Rescue Mission are absolutely essential, but the next step doesn’t exist,” Lunetta said.
Without a permanent address and facing the stigma of being homeless, many homeless people struggle to find a job.
“A lot of employers know the addresses of the shelters,” Lunetta said.
The distracting and stressful atmosphere of a shelter makes it hard for people to focus on maintaining their jobs, too.
Lunetta said many people do not understand the trauma homeless people often endure.
“Working at the shelter, I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has both parents in their lives, who hasn’t suffered abuse,” he said. “A lot exist because there are people who are down on their luck.”
Lunetta’s next three units will be built on a lot in the Valley area. He’s waiting on building permits. Lunetta said his tiny homes must be close to public transportation, as few of his prospective tenants have a car.
“Being close to downtown is really important,” he said.
While the first five tiny homes will be for male veterans who are homeless, Lunetta said he expects that housing for women will come within the next few units.
“We’ll have case managers from agencies who will refer [people to] us who are struggling to find housing,” he said.
Lunetta won’t be stopping at just a handful of homes.
“It would be wonderful if by 2019 we had 50 homes,” Lunetta said.
While A Tiny Home for Good has a multitude of volunteers, Lunetta needs funding to keep the project going.
“We need [donations] to get the capital built until the resident rent starts coming in,” he said.
Most of all, Lunetta advocated showing compassion for people who are homeless. Once the tiny homes are built and occupied, Lunetta said, volunteers and supporters of A Tiny Home for Good should stop by to say hello to the tenants so they know someone is thinking of them.
“A big part of our work is going to be telling the stories of our residents, breaking down that stigma,” he said.
To learn more, donate or volunteer, visit atinyhomeforgood.org.
