Dozens of community members gathered Tuesday to celebrate the completion of Tucson’s first tiny home village, which will soon become home to nine former foster youths.

Desiree Cook started I Am You 360 a decade ago to support kids and teens in foster care. But what started as a way to provide personalized hygiene products to local youths has blossomed into a program that includes mentorship, life skills training, housing and true community.

Tuesday’s ribbon cutting marked the near-completion of a project that is near and dear to Cook’s heart, as well as the hearts of many other Tucsonans, given the crowd size and makeup.

City officials as well as representatives from community and faith groups and various nonprofits were all on hand for the event, along with donors, volunteers and many of the homes’ future residents.

Board President Nikieia Johnson welcomed the crowd, telling them that the 10 buildings surrounding them are three years and $1.9 million in the making.

The village is made up of nine 450-square-foot, eco-friendly tiny homes and a larger community gathering center that includes a meeting area, kitchen and sleeping area for an on-site behavioral support specialist.

I Am You 360 purchased the property, which had sat vacant for 70 years, from the adjacent Hope City Church, officially breaking ground on the village in March 2023.

“To be able to sit on (the land) today knowing that going into 2025, our young people will be living and thriving and breaking generational curses, we are truly moving the needle forward in our unique and innovative approach, ” Johnson said. “We are doing things that aren’t even being done in the state of Arizona, let alone the United States of America.

She invited the future residents up on the stage one-by-one to introduce themselves, each one greeted by loud cheers and applause and a handful of them accompanied by children of their own.

“It is important to us that you put a face to these homes,” Johnson said.

Despite the festive atmosphere, Johnson cautioned the crowd that the village’s completion doesn’t mean the work is done.

“This is nonstop work. We are working on permanent solutions,” she said. “Nothing about I Am You 360 is a temporary fix.”

In 2021, Tucson developer Louis Blass offered I Am You 360 the use of a renovated apartment complex, where all of the village's future residents currently live. Blass, who owns Crest Contracting, worked with Cook on a pay-as-you go basis to build the village.

It was a long process to raise the funds, but Cook began offering sponsorships to help fund the individual homes. One-by-one, businesses and groups stepped up to help, including One AZ Credit Union, Christ Presbyterian Church, the Robert Kemper Corrigan Foundation and the City of Tucson, through a pair of American Rescue Plan Act grants.

When the residents move into their homes in January, nine new young adults will move into the rental property.

While Blass wasn’t able to attend the ribbon cutting, a representative from Crest said that this is just the beginning of their partnership with I Am You 360.

“I am forever grateful for this work. It’s work, but I’m up for the assignment. This is what community looks like. This is what a movement looks like,” Cook told the crowd. “There were many times that I was ready to give up, but I knew, this was not for me, it’s for them.”

She said that these young people aging out of foster care are part of an underserved population and that projects like these help sew them back into the fabric of the community.

Each resident will pay $450 a month in rent, with half of the money being set aside into an escrow fund to be used later to put a down payment on homes of their own. They’ll also be required to get a job or attend school and undergo life skills training,

“We must give them the tools. We have to stop asking our underserved populations, ‘Be great, do great, don’t get in trouble,’” she said. “If we aren’t giving them the tools, we are already failing them.”

Cook is pausing from building in 2025 in order to collect data and show that the model is an evidence-based success.. While she does that,I Am You 360 is looking to set up a laundromat for foster youth and unhoused teens, with on-site tutors and computers and an after-school program. Cook calls the project a “clean clothes empowerment station.”

“There are 23,000 (young people) that age out of foster care nationally each year. In the state of Arizona, we have over 10,000 children in foster care,” Cook said. “We are in crisis. We have work to do. This is just the beginning.”

Caitlin Schmidt is Editor and Publisher of Tucson Spotlight. She previously worked for the Arizona Daily Star and has been reporting on Southern Arizona for a decade. Contact her at caitlin@tucsonspotlight.org.

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