Let's get small: Augusta charity proposes tiny home community for teens aging out of foster care
A charity wants to turn tiny houses in Augusta into tiny homes for teens who have outgrown the child welfare system.
“We want to create better outcomes by putting them in a safe community,” said Jackson Drumgoole, founder of the nonprofit Drumgoole Family Initiatives. “Imagine an individual, 18 to 20-something years old, no education, living with PTSD, still trying to find a safe, affordable house.”
Tiny houses are the product of an architectural movement that advocates smaller, simpler living spaces. Styles and floor plans vary, but tiny houses tend to occupy about 600 square feet, according to the online home-services platform Porch.com. Online real-estate firms Zillow and Redfin estimate the average size of a U.S. house at about 1,600 square feet.
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Drumgoole’s organization, founded in 2020, has reached out to other local organizations that assist families and children. He said he hopes these stakeholders will join him Oct. 22 in a “whiteboard meeting” where the scale and scope of the project can be discussed, including location and cost.
Drumgoole didn’t grow up in the foster care system, but while growing up in Augusta knew many who did. He established his charity shortly after retiring from the U.S. Army.
“As a teenager I vowed I wanted to do something about it,” he said. “As I continued to grow and get more education, I still recognized that individuals who came through the foster care system were far less fortunate than I was. A lot of kids never recover.”
Drumgoole hopes to model his Bridge Builder Community after a similar initiative begun in Oklahoma City in 2019 by Pivot, a nonprofit that assists troubled youth. Three tiny houses sit on Pivot’s 125-acre campus.
Drumgoole hopes to find land for his charity’s tiny homes by the end of the year, close to employment opportunity and other resources, he said.
“The location is key,” he said. “I can’t put them out in the country and expect them to flourish.”
The local need for such a community is there, according to Kari Viola-Brooke, executive director of the Augusta-area social services nonprofit Child Enrichment.
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There are 380 children in foster care in Richmond County, and 58 and 51 respectively in neighboring Columbia and Burke counties, she said.
“Say you have a kid that goes off to college. They still rely on their parents, even though they become 18, for simple things like, ‘Do I have health insurance? Where am I going to live?’” Viola-Brooke said. “So it’s really important for us to have this transition period for stability for kids. Just because they age out of foster care doesn’t mean they have all the life lessons and resources they need to continue on.”
Outcomes can be bleak for young adults exiting the foster care system, she said.
“Currently, when you look at the prison rates, 80% pf people in prison have spent time in traditional foster care,” Viola-Brooke said. “If we really want to have criminal justice reform, especially in our community, we really need to make sure we’re providing our foster care youth with every resource available to help them succeed.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta charity proposes tiny homes for teens leaving foster care
