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Working Fusion At Mill Street Tiny Home Village

Move In Day!

Ground Floor Bedroom

Ground Floor Bedroom

Follow The Updates And Progress On This Page. 

Ground Floor Bedroom

Ground Floor Bedroom

Ground Floor Bedroom

A Dream Come True For Many! 

A We Fortify Project

Safe Haven For At-Risk Young Adults

Tiny Building Experts has been chosen to build the tiny homes for a  new tiny home village in Colorado Springs, Colorado for at-risk young adults, with a special focus on the youth aging out of foster care. With the lack of housing and unaffordable prices, the need is immediate.

The new tiny home village is called Working Fusion At Mill Creek and will be a safe haven for at-risk young adults.  We Fortify is the non-profit that is developing the much-needed tiny home village.   




Downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado

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Shelley Jensen Is The Founder Of We Fortify

Working Fusion-A We Fortify Project

18 Tiny Homes • Community Spaces • Multi-Purpose Court • Shared Garden

18 Tiny Homes • Community Spaces • Multi-Purpose Court • Shared Garden

We Believe- People inherently want to live lives of independence and purpose 

An unshakeable sense of hope creates a foundation for possibility

Tenacious encouragement provides structure for growth

Caring accountability fortifies people to face and overcome challenges

We are a homeless prevention initiative. 

The tiny house community will not only be an affordable place to live, but resources will be available to help young homeless people find jobs and be able to find other housing after the transition period. The people  who live at Working Fusion at Mill Street will pay rent to live in the tiny homes and will only be allowed to live there for two years.  

Shelley  Jensen, the founder of  We Fortify, is behind the project and just won the Jefferson Awards, an award started by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in  1972, which has honored over have honored the incredible spirit and unique accomplishments of over 63,000 national and local heroes.



18 Tiny Homes • Community Spaces • Multi-Purpose Court • Shared Garden

18 Tiny Homes • Community Spaces • Multi-Purpose Court • Shared Garden

18 Tiny Homes • Community Spaces • Multi-Purpose Court • Shared Garden

Working  Fusion at Mill Street is a neighborhood community in Colorado Springs, Colorado that fortifies motivated young adults to create lives of purpose and sustainable independence. 

By providing dignified housing, accessible support services, and an inspiring peer community, Working Fusion becomes a partner in creating a  clear path forward for young adults who have experienced economic challenges. 

With  a deep respect for each person’s inherent worth, potential, and desire for self-sufficiency, Working Fusion offers compassionate guidance,  tenacious encouragement, and caring accountability.

Working Fusion at Mill Street is for young adults
between the ages of 18 and 29 who:

  • Will benefit from close proximity to access
support services
  • Are able and motivated to be self-sufficient
  • Often through no fault of their own, are at extreme risk for becoming, have been, or are situationally homeless
  • Have the desire to live a life of purpose and independence

A Small Piece Of Our Hearts.......

A Small Piece Of Our Hearts.......

A Small Piece Of Our Hearts.......

Being in Foster Care himself although for a short time, Austin knows first hand what it’s like to grow up without a Dad and minimal positive influence in his young life so when the opportunity to be a part of this  project came to us and offered us a chance to help people, we committed to being part of this critical cause.
We want to be a part of the solution and offer these young people a positive influence.  This program is bigger than affordable housing and getting these young adults started in the right direction in life. Having a program to work with the kids to teach life skills with surely motivate, and influence others to do the program and become leaders and mentors too.  This is going to be amazing Community development, watch the impact of this little neighborhood come to life and please consider supporting We Fortify!
On behalf of Tiny Building Experts, we are assuring these Tiny houses are made with love and well built so they are a blessing in our community.  This is why we started our business, to help people have something they could call home.
Austin Baker & Tracy Manchego-Baker
Tiny Building Experts

HUD Director Praises The Project

A Small Piece Of Our Hearts.......

A Small Piece Of Our Hearts.......

According to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Director in Colorado Springs, Steve Posey, HUD currently does not have  any future affordable housing projects that include tiny homes in  Colorado Springs, but there may be in  parts  of the country. Posey  said that the Mill Street tiny home project is not considered affordable  housing, but its intention is to decrease the amount of people in   homeless shelters.

He said that the local HUD has partnered up with the non-profit organization We Fortify to help with the Mill Street project. “We helped them buy one of the  tiny homes because that is going to help so that we don’t have more of  our young folks going into a shelter,” Posey said. “But that is more of  what I would consider transitional housing where they can live in a tiny  home for six months or a year until they get back on their feet and  they are able to go into a more traditional apartment scenario.”

According to the director of Greccio Housing Lee Patke, We Fortify’s Founder, Shelley Jensen came up with a more  innovative way than most affordable housing organizations use for  developments. “You want to talk about out-of-the-box kind of thinking,  Shelley Jensen just has a mind for that kind of development,” Patke  said. “She is really an incubator of ideas and she is very innovative in  her ideas with the Mill Street project

Source: The Maverick Observer 


Exciting Update: First Residents Are Moving In This Weekend!

‘Out Of The Cycle Of Poverty, Permanently’: Colorado Springs

By Dan Boyce CPR News January 13, 2022

A new community of “tiny homes" near downtown Colorado Springs is set  to receive its first residents this weekend – 18- to 25-year-olds  otherwise at risk of homelessness. 

Four of the 240 square-foot homes have already been delivered to the community, named Working Fusion at Mill Street.  In total, 18 homes, all constructed locally, are ultimately planned for the site. The compact buildings manage to fit a kitchen, bathroom,  full-sized bed, and lofted storage space as well as a washer and dryer in each unit.

In 2019, Colorado Springs resident Shelley Jensen founded We Fortify, the parent company of the Working Fusion project, to help vulnerable young people “out of the cycle of poverty, permanently.”

Rent for the tiny homes will be $600 a month and potential residents will be nominated from other human services organizations in Colorado Springs.  Initial leases will last for two years to allow tenants to adjust to adult responsibilities and process trauma they may have experienced as children. 

"If that [trauma] is not managed in parallel to getting that job, to learning those new life skills, it can be detrimental to the job that they now have,” Jensen said. “So, we really  want to give them enough time to really handle this well."

The first two homes arrived on trailers at the site Tuesday morning.  Volunteers like Charles Mingonet were building fences, leveling the homes, and preparing them to be hooked up to utility lines. Organizers said outdoor decks will be built onto the structures over the next week. 

“People always go, ‘What do we do about the homeless?’”  Mingonet said. “Well, let’s get them a good job and get them a place to  live, not just put them up for a night.”


Full Article CPR News 

 

First Residents Of Tiny Homes for TheHomeless Village

In Colorado Spring To Move In This Month

 

The inside of one of the tiny  homes at the Working Fusion development in the Mill Street neighborhood  Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. 


Photos Courtesy Christian Murdock / The Gazette

Tiny Homes Are 240 Square Feet

Tiny Homes Are 240 Square Feet

Tiny Homes Are 240 Square Feet

Chuck Mingonet helps guide a tiny  home into place Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, as the first five tiny homes  are put into place at the Working Fusion development in the Mill Street  neighborhood. 

Volunteers Are Lending A Hand

Tiny Homes Are 240 Square Feet

Tiny Homes Are 240 Square Feet

 Nelson Gandica roofs one of the  storage sheds Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, at the Working Fusion development  in the Mill Street neighborhood.
  

Source The Gazette Debbie Kelley

The Gazette: Jan 12, 2022 Updated Jan 13, 2022

Marked progress on a Colorado Springs woman’s vision to build a tiny  home village for homeless young adults brought enough excitement to  rival Santa’s chimney drop.

“I felt like a child at my first  Christmas yesterday when those houses came,” said Shelley Jensen, a  community strategist and founder of We Fortify, the nonprofit  organization developing the project.

An inaugural five of 18 tiny  homes planned for the new Working Fusion development in the Mill Street  neighborhood in southwest downtown arrived Tuesday.pany policies, executive profiles, company awards/distinctions, office locations, shareholder reports, whitepapers, media mentions and other pieces of content that don’t fit into a shorter, more succinct space.

Six old houses occupying .63 acres, roughly two-thirds of a city block, were torn down to make way for the tiny homes.

Residents  are 18 to 25 years old and have been referred to the program by a  social service agency. Some have aged out of the foster care system and  don’t have anywhere to live; others have been couch-surfing or living  with families or friends and need a better plan.

After going  through a lengthy interview process, accepted residents must sign a  two-year lease agreement and contract to be a “good neighbor” and agree  to such conditions as not playing music too loudly, not allowing trash  to accumulate and not smoking in the immediate area.



Updated Jan 13, 2022

Two additional houses, built locally by Tiny Building Experts, will be  moved into the development each month, with Jensen seeking funding for  the final six units. Simultaneously, Jensen wants to construct a building to the north, to  hold classes for residents on independent living, cooking, budgeting and  other skills; provide space for yoga lessons, community events and  activities; display public art; and create social enterprise to help  support We Fortify.

Gazette Article

Colorado Springs Tiny Home Project

Gets Green Light Sept 19, 2019 

Learn More About Working Fusion
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