A woman in Oregon is turning school buses into tiny homes for families experiencing homelessness. Julie Akins, a freelance journalist in Ashland, Oregon, went on a two-year road trip from Portland to Denver beginning in August 2016, pitching tents and living among others, all to understand how people experiencing homelessness live.
Along the way, she came across a family living in a school bus. She knocked on the door to introduce herself and found a family of nine living inside, People Magazine reported. The family had ripped out all the seats, put down floors, and were sleeping on mattresses on the ground of the bus. There was no toilet, shower, or kitchen.
Akins had the idea to take retired school buses and convert them into homes for other families in similar situations — livable tiny homes with kitchens and bathrooms.
“They want to have a place to live that is their own, that’s safe, and they want to be mobile, so they can get better jobs,” Akins told People.
She launched the nonprofit Vehicles For Change, and nine months later the first family moved into one of her creations.
“It made the little money we had stronger,” one beneficiary of the program told People. “It took the stress off of our lives. It allows us to breathe for a moment.”
A woman in Michigan — whom Akins has never met — heard about the nonprofit, reached out to Akins, and committed to funding the nonprofit for five years, giving $25,000 a year.
A school district donated two buses, and Akins hopes to eventually be able to make five converted buses each year. Volunteers have risen to the occasion and have led the work to flip the buses from the inside out.