Bluff Street in Toledo's Monroe-Auburn area sat nearly abandoned for years. Now it has a row of small, new houses, and the people living in them are on their way to owning them.
Bluff Street Village, a project of the Monroe Street Neighborhood Center, has been growing for four years, 13 ABC reported. Seven tiny homes are built on former vacant lots, and eight more are expected by 2030.
Each resident pays $400 a month to the neighborhood center. After seven years of payments, the home is theirs.
"The concept is low-income and to allow individuals the opportunity to own homes. So it's people earning between $8,000 and $22,000 a year," said Tracci Johnson, the center's executive director.
Small homes, full kitchens
Coy Clifton has lived at Bluff Street Village with his dog, Chico, for more than four years. His 400-square-foot home has a kitchen, bathroom and living space, plus a washer, dryer, stove and refrigerator.
"It's great. Everything's so convenient. You got your washer and dryer right there 10 feet away, your stove, refrigerator. It does come with all the appliances too," Clifton told 13 ABC. He has turned his backyard into a garden with a small pond.
Clifton said he is on disability after a car crash, several surgeries and cancer, and can't work. He said he isn't sure he would ever have owned a home without a project like this. "I never imagined it," he said. In about two years, the house will officially be his. "It's going to be a feeling I never had before," Clifton said.
"I'm 63 years old, and it's probably the most comfortable I've lived in my whole life," he said.
Living there comes with obligations. Residents are required to do 10 hours of community service a month and attend monthly workshops.
Built on donations
The project runs mostly on donations and still needs $1.2 million to be completed, according to 13 ABC.
The Bluff Street Village website says the plan is 15 tiny homes along Bluff Street. The homes are capped at 400 square feet, and the $400 monthly rent covers everything except electricity. The plans include tree-shaded sidewalks, pedestrian-scale lighting with no driveways cutting across them, and a small green space for residents to gather. The project is part of Lowe's 100 Hometowns initiative.
The village also relies on skilled volunteers. Its website asks for help with finish carpentry, cabinet installation, drywall hanging and finishing, ceramic tile, vinyl plank flooring, electrical and plumbing.
David Mann of the Lucas County Land Bank is quoted on the site calling Bluff Street Village "exactly this kind of development project" the community needs to fight neighborhood decline. The site also lists Dr. Sarah Twitchell and Chuck Thayer, both former Habitat for Humanity directors, among the people behind the project, along with Johnson and development committee chair David DiManna.
One home is empty right now, and the center is taking applications for the next resident. Applications are open through Oct. 30. Applications are taken online only. Applicants must have lived in Lucas County for at least a year and meet background requirements, including no sex-offense conviction in the last 10 years and no drug manufacturing or distribution conviction in the last five.
No general contractor has been named publicly for the remaining homes.
The center says it wants Bluff Street Village to be a stabilizing force that sparks new investment in the surrounding area. Getting to 15 homes will depend on how quickly it can raise the rest of the money.
Why it matters for Contractors
Bluff Street Village is a small project, but it shows a model more neighborhoods may try: tiny, simple homes on land bank lots, built for people who would never qualify for a mortgage. For trades, the opportunity is both paid and volunteer. The organization is openly asking for finish carpenters, cabinet installers, drywall crews, tile setters, flooring installers, electricians and plumbers to donate time, and the eight remaining homes will need site work, foundations, framing and roofing too. Contractors looking to give back in Toledo, or to sponsor a home, would be hard pressed to find a more direct way to see the results. Small builders interested in compact, repeatable homes for nonprofits should also watch how this one comes together.