Quick Take
A group of local contractors is hoping to address both homelessness and climate change with their project to build six new “tiny homes” using natural materials.
Local contractors are working together to bring low-income housing for community members experiencing homelessness. The project will use renewable materials such as straw bales to lessen climate change impacts.
The group’s first project at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, in Soquel, will replace six cabins on the church’s property with tiny homes about the size of two large walk-in closets.
The contractors – Michele Landegger, Micah Posner and Kita Glass, who formed a group called Just Places – are partnering with Santa Cruz-based nonprofit People First of Santa Cruz County, which provides support services to unhoused residents. Once the project is complete — Posner is hopeful construction will start next spring — the nonprofit will manage the site and offer resources to individuals living in the cabins.
Landegger told Lookout the group began having conversations with church leadership four years ago to figure out how to bring safe living spaces for the unhoused community at the church, after the existing cabins were deemed “uninhabitable” by the county.
“We are committed to addressing climate change, as well as addressing the housing crisis,” Landegger said. “And, we see that there’s an intersection between climate change and the housing crisis.”
She said housing contributes significantly to carbon emissions. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, housing is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse emissions through “operational energy use,” such as air and heating systems, and through embodied carbon in construction materials, like fiberglass insulation.
Landegger said the cabins will use straw bales to insulate the walls, as opposed to regular insulation. The bales absorb carbon dioxide for the lifespan of a home.
“This is taking carbon from the air and storing it in the building,” said Glass. “So, it’s storing carbon and it’s replacing something that would be adding a lot of carbon.”
Homes built with straw bales date to the 1800s, when settlers in Nebraska used the material as an alternative to lumber, said Landegger. “They realized, we can stack this stuff and build homes with it,” she said, and added that many of those homes and buildings are still standing today.
Just Places will use straw bales to build homes as a way to address climate change. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Michele Landegger standing in front of a wall being packed with straw bale. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Small buildings built by Just Places will use straw bale. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz 
Kita Glass and Michele Landegger stand inside an ADU they are building using straw bale. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz
The bales are also less flammable because the material is dense and tightly packed into a building’s foundation, making it harder for a flame to burn the material, said Glass. The walls are coated with an earth-based plaster that acts as a fire-resistant barrier.
The group has raised a little over $1 million for the project’s construction through grants and fundraising, said Posner, adding that they’re hosting a pair of events – April 18 and 19 – to help raise the remaining $300,000 needed.
Posner said they are taking a community-based approach, and plan to have volunteers help with construction. The group’s April 18 workshop also will allow for community members to learn more about straw-bale homes, and see the progress of an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) being built on the site using the natural materials.
Although the project’s construction is almost a year away, Just Places already has plans for a second endeavor: a 10-unit apartment building also on the Mount Calvary Church property.
“We want [this project] to be the first one, and we want to keep going,” Glass said.
