With summer heat in full swing, residents at Grace Campus are trying to keep cool.
Cory Reed hasn’t lived at Grace Campus for long, but he says it’s a fresh start. While he tries to find a stable job, he says it’s all he has to keep a roof over his head.
“I’m not having an easy time finding work, most of the jobs I get are part time,” Reed said.
Reed said he has lived at Grace Campus since April.
Chris Moore, the executive director of Paul’s Project – Grace Campus, said they’ve nearly doubled in size in the past few months.
“Right now we have 82 people staying at Grace Campus which is really high for summer,” Moore said.
One big challenge during the summer is to keep residents cool, he said.
“When it gets really hot it’s a safety thing, we don’t want anybody to have a heat stroke or heat exhaustion, we want to keep people safe, and as comfortable as we can in these conditions,” Moore said.
Although they have these homes to stay out of the sun, Moore said they don’t have any air conditioners.
“We’ve built a little prototype cooler, it has a fan coming down and batteries, and it re-charges with a solar panel,” Moore said.
However, he said they need to raise money for about 30 more units.
Moore said the ultimate goal is for residents to find value and transition out of the tiny home. So far this year, 50 people have moved to a permanent living space.
Paul’s Project – Grace Campus Lubbock is solely run on donations. To donate, visit: www.paulsprojectlubbock.org/.
