In 2018, Woodland began our partnership with Settled, an organization taking a unique approach to homelessness through the creation of tiny home communities called Sacred Settlements.
Since then we’ve offered our North End as a build site, and used our parking lot to host tiny home construction as well as a prototype of a Sacred Settlement which has been toured by hundreds of people who wanted to learn about this new idea.
Over the course of the last four years, churches have sponsored and built homes, and Mosaic Christian Community volunteered to host the first Sacred Settlement on St. Paul’s East Side.
Before that could happen, though, the St. Paul city council needed to recognize the launch of this first community. We’ve been waiting on this for a long while, and are excited to share that earlier this week on June 8 the city council gave this plan unanimous approval!
Anne Franz, co-founder of Settled says, “This is a big victory that our St. Paul has recognized a Sacred Settlement and it’s a big step forward to responding to the loss of family and community that our neighbors in chronic homelessness have experienced.”
The city council vote means that there is now a pilot ordinance recognizing and approving the Sacred Settlement at Mosaic. This first settlement will allow the city to conduct a real-world zoning study for this new housing category.
With this step complete, the next step is to finish the regulatory inspection and permit processes. Right now, the first Sacred Settlement residents are still living outside, and the summer heat will make this especially difficult. Please pray for the remaining details to be finalized swiftly so that they can move into their new homes as quickly as possible.
At Woodland, soon you’ll see five of the eight homes in our parking lot move on to their new home at Mosaic. Three will remain behind, and in August, construction will start on another three homes to create the second version of our demonstration site, as we wait in faith for the next Sacred Settlement!
Thank you for all your prayers and for your generosity in making this possible!
