x
Breaking News
More () »

Church builds tiny homes for recovering addicts

In one of the nation's poorest counties, a local church is trying to help by building a community to support those in recovery.

McCreary County, KY — Down a one lane road in McCreary County, Kentucky, there's a horse pasture with some tiny homes and a lot of hope.

McCreary is one of the nation's poorest counties. 32 percent of the people there live under the poverty line and it has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

Crossroads Community Baptist Church Pastor Grant Hasty is building a community of tiny houses to try to help.

"When someone wants help and they don't have a support system behind them on a regular basis to hold them accountable...that's when they have issues of relapsing," Hasty said.

He's planning to build 20 tiny homes for recovering addicts.

"We've got 13 acres of land total and about half the land is going to be developed into tiny homes," he said.

He wants it to be a community of support emphasizing on staying clean and incorporating job training to enable people to get back on their feet.

"It's not a hand-out, it's a hand-up and that's what we need to start doing in McCreary County," Vicki Kidd, a volunteer with the program, said.

Pastor Hasty's plan has attracted support from churches across the country.

This week, a mission group from Augusta, Georgia is building two more tiny homes for people in recovery.

"They need some place to know that they can go and start new and that's what this is: a new beginning," Kidd said.

Church groups from as far as Texas and Florida are scheduled to come help in the coming weeks. Hasty will begin the process of deciding who will live in the homes once they are fully built.

Before You Leave, Check This Out