TUCSON, Ariz. — A nonprofit that has spent years trying to open a tiny-home village for people without housing is now asking Tucson for permission to double it — before the first 10 cabins have taken a resident.
The Homing Project’s cabins stand on a dirt lot in the 2900 block of North Estrella Avenue, in the Keeling neighborhood near North Stone Avenue and East Fort Lowell Road. Each one is 64 square feet, with air conditioning, a bed, and storage. Plans also call for shared showers, a kitchen, around-the-clock security, and case managers from Catholic Community Services. The group says the first residents would be young women and survivors of domestic violence.
Founder Kristin Olson-Garewal and manager Luis Adame have asked Planning and Development Services for a special exception so the site can grow from 10 units to as many as 20, a layout that could hold up to 29 people at a time. The city is taking neighborhood comment as part of that review. Tucson declared a housing emergency in February that loosened some code rules to speed shelter projects. The Homing Project is the only applicant to use that path for a special exemption in the seven months since, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Neighbors who spoke to the Star mostly objected to expansion because the original village is still not open. The permit for the first 10 shelters was issued in March 2025. An August opening slipped, and the target is now mid-October. The cabins can be put together in about an hour. What has taken years is everything around them.
The site will not open until it has a certificate of occupancy sized for the larger plan, a city official told the Star. The extra cabins themselves wait on money. The project, funded largely by donations, still needs about $100,000 to buy them. The land is leased rent-free from the Southern Arizona Land Trust, tied to a later apartment project on the same lot. That lease runs out in June 2028.
The fight on Estrella is a small version of Tucson’s larger argument: whether shelter should grow on a residential block that has watched an unfinished project sit for years, or whether waiting for a perfect opening means more people stay outside.