| | | | Welcome $[UD:FIRST_NAME||]$!
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-- July 2025 Newsletter --
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Night Art Market Saturday, July 26th, 2025, 6:00 to 9:00 PM, at The Coalition Space, in the Made in Tucson Market, 311 E 7th Street Summer is upon us. With temperatures soaring past 100 degrees, the days are scorching, but the Arizona heat won’t stop the dedicated volunteers of The Homing Project! This lively event transforms a summer night in Downtown Tucson into a hub for local art with activities for everyone. Activities include (but are not limited to): ● Pay-As-You-Wish Gallery: An area stocked with handmade art, donated by Tucson-based artists, organized by suggested prices. ● Live Auction: Here, you can put your strategic thinking skills to the test by bidding on one-of-a-kind artworks and unique items. ● Card-Making Station: Get creative and craft bright, colorful welcome cards for future pod residents. ● Learn About The Homing Project: Want to know more about our work? Stop by our information booth to learn about our mission, needs, and upcoming volunteer opportunities. We are grateful to Made in Tucson, who have graciously helped coordinate this event as well as donate the use of The Coalition Space to The Homing Project. Donations like this allow The Homing Project to advance our purpose of supporting unhoused individuals of southern Arizona.
| | Our volunteers, Michelle and Mike Sheehan, recently moved to a home that has an overabundance of beautiful cacti. They have generously offered to donate many of their cactus as Michelle re-landscapes her yards. So, we are planning to hold a cactus and plant sale fundraiser in the fall. To do this, we need a team to help organize the event as well as many gardeners (and novice gardeners) to donate, pot, and propagate cacti over the summer. We really need a few people with experience with plant sales! Please get in touch with Yolanda Sethi (Yolanda.sethi@thehomingproject.org) if you would like to join the cactus/plant sale committee and/or donate plants for the sale. | | | |
We’re thrilled to welcome Glenn Paris as our new Philanthropy Coordinator. Glenn brings years of experience in fundraising, nonprofit leadership, and advocacy work, including past roles at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. With a lifelong commitment to social justice and community building, Glenn is excited to help grow support for The Homing Project’s mission. In his words: “It’s good for yourself—it’s empowering.” We’re lucky to have him on our team!
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We’ve already paid for the micro-shelters, the bathhouse, engineering, site work and utilities, but there are still a lot of things needed. Can you help? Needed Items Unit Cost Number Needed Outdoor covered dining area (32' by 32') for dining, socializing, and meetings: Dining table for 6 $150 each 4 Chairs for mixed-use common area $50 each 24 13' post supports for dining canopy $250 per pair 3 pairs 12” by 12” concrete tiles for patio $1.60 each 1,200
Bike rack $455 1
Household items: Twin size blankets $25 10 Standard size pillows $18 each 10 Twin size mattress covers $15 each 10 Bath soap for entire village $12/month Monthly Shampoo for entire village $15/month Monthly
Laundry: Laundry soap, biodegradable $20/resident Monthly Clothesline poles, concrete for installation, line, and clothes pins $120
Solar energy system: Solar panel, installed, incl. system design cost $500 30
Water conservation & reuse Rain barrels and gutters for rain harvesting $750 3 from larger buildings Gray water diversion device for laundry $800 each 2
Security Opaque privacy fence $45/foot installed 500 ft. Overnight onsite guard $336 per 12 hr. shift 365 per year
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El Tour De Tucson November 22nd, 2025
The Homing Project has registered as a Non-profit Partner with El Tour de Tucson!
This means we will be part of the November 22, 2025 El Tour Event, including the Zenni Expo & cycling teams! Participants can choose from a multitude of levels for fundraising: 102 mile, 62 mile, 32 mile, family fun ride, and a 5K walk/run.
Look for more information in our July newsletter on volunteer opportunities, and on signing up to ride on our team!
| | | | On July 1st, The Homing Project attended the FemaleStorytellers event, aka F*ST. The theme for this show was First Responders. As we watched and listened, we were transported into each of their stories. The storytellers are humble, yet powerful. They remind us that first responders come in many forms. The Homing Project could also be considered a first responder for those who flee from domestic violence, or are forced out of their home because of rent increases. By providing all the basic needs and securities in one location, we will be giving unhoused individuals a ladder to autonomy over their own lives. Female Storytellers, (F*ST), donates proceeds from their monthly ticket sales to a local nonprofit; choosing organizations that promote women, children, social justice and equity, and the arts. In July, they chose The Homing Project as their beneficiary. We are grateful for their generous donation. In addition to the donation, they allowed us the stage during intermission to explain our mission and the progress we have made. We set up an information table where people could pick up literature, talk with our volunteers, and sign up to volunteer.
Thank you F*ST for staying connected, building community, and giving back to the Tucson community.
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Rod Quainton, Volunteer and Board Member, reviewed No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brian Goldstone.
Here is a poignant and eye-opening must-read account of bureaucratic and systemic Catch-22s. These snares are illustrated through the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to make ends meet, sometimes holding two minimum-wage jobs, while caught between gentrification and insufficient sustainable affordable housing.
The book is a compelling polemic, told in dramatic fashion through the lives of five families whose resilience is both inspiring and humbling—even as poor lifestyle choices at times complicate their circumstances. If there is a hero in these stories, it is “Pink,” whose presence stands out as a source of strength and hope.
The author skillfully weaves these personal stories with statistics that challange the reader to examine the political will – or lack thereof – to provide affordable housing. While officials only count as homeless those people who live on the street, in shelters, or under bridges, the real number is several times larger if you count those persons couch surfing, living in extended stay hotels, sleeping in their cars or moving in with relatives or friends because they have no stable housing. Imagine the number of families living paycheck to paycheck, one disastrous event away from being homeless: an illness, job loss, car accident, addiction, or unexpected eviction.
Brian Goldstone illuminates the precarious situations confronting many urban dwellers who make a living at the bottom rungs of available jobs. The book invites us to ask what are the solutions? And how can we promote change to avoid the homeless scandal?
| | | | Help the Cause -- Buy some Raffle Tickets! | |
Jim Click Raffle 2025. Enter to win a 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid SX PrestigeTickets are $25 each or 5 for $100. Every dollar of our raffle ticket sales goes to The Homing Project! Purchase raffle tickets on the project website. | | | | | | | |
The Homing Project Board Meeting and Volunteer Meeting Dates
Month Board Mtg Volunteers Mtg
July 2025 Wed. 23rd Sat. 26th
August 2025 Wed. 27th Sat. 30th
September 2025 Wed. 24th Sat. 27th
October 2025 Wed. 22nd Sat. 25th
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Board Meetings convene at Kris Olson’s home at 5:30 PM. Volunteers are welcome to attend.
Volunteer Meetings are now being held at 10 AM on last Saturdays, as shown above, at City of Tucson Ward 3 meeting room, 1510 E. Grant Rd. Join us to plan new events and to discuss past ones. |
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Thank you for choosing to serve our community with us, from the Board and Newsletter Staff of The Homing Project!
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The Homing Project Newsletter Joe Vaughan produced this month’s newsletter with assistance from Kiarra Celaya, Edie Schmitz Email suggestions of items for inclusion to: newsletter@thehomingproject.org | | | | | | | | | | | |
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