The tiny houses you see on Pinterest and HGTV is gaining momentum to combat veteran homelessness. One Air Force veteran in California is laser focused on building tiny home communities to give women vets a safe place to rebuild their lives.
Sandy Blair didn’t consider herself homeless after she was discharged from the Air Force for medical reasons in 2005.
“It was a very difficult time for me,” she said. “Everywhere I applied for a job, I was told I was overqualified. I ended up losing the house I just bought.”
Now, this veteran turned real estate agent has founded Operation Women Empowered Build Strong (WEBS) which seeks to build a community of tiny houses on wheels in California specifically for female veterans.
“On a holistic level, these women will be able to garden again and will be able to disconnect from all the distractions that surrounded them on the streets,” she said.
Blair's journey to Operation WEBS is a crooked one. After losing her own home, Blair and her two children moved in with her best friend in Florida. A little more than a year later, they relocated to Georgia to help her parents after her father had a heart attack. That's when VA approved Blair’s request to go back to school.
“I went and studied residential construction,” she said.
But the real estate market crashed and no-one was building, and Blair couldn't find work in the business. Instead, she put her military training to work by accepting a position with a local police department.
All the while, Blair kept her dream of being a real estate agent in her heart.
“I talked about it for years, I just never had the money to do it,” she said.
A few years later, that dream would become a reality when Blair and her children relocated to California.
“I ended up going to school, getting my real estate license and starting with a phenomenal company,” she said.
Blair attended a tiny home seminar in 2017 in Los Angeles and learned about Operation Tiny Home, a non-profit that helps veterans that do not have housing stability.
“I thought surely if this already exists, I can do this for our sisters,” she said.
Blair was soon digging into how to create a non-profit and formed Operation WEBS last year.
“Women Empowered Build Strong was born out of the experience of Operation Tiny Home,” she explained. “I watched women who had never touched a saw or a hammer or a drill before. They were having these breakthrough experiences.”
Earlier this year, Operation WEBS opened a stability home in Orcutt, Calif., which will eventually house no more than four female veterans.
“This is not a transition home. This isn’t a halfway house,” she said. “It’s not a shelter. It is a stability home. The only thing you’re really sharing is the kitchen and bathroom.”
The next step for Operation WEBS is to build a tiny home community for female veterans. To make that happen, Blair sets aside a portion of her real estate commissions and through Operation WEBS is holding a series of fundraisers.
It’s a big dream, but Blair is confident it will happen.
“I want them to know there’s a safe space for them and I want to create that for them,” she said.
To learn more or donate, visit https://operationwebs.org/
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