Delta Bay Foundation sponsors Camp Tiny House, thanks to a generous grant to the Foundation some years ago which continues to all the Foundation to meet its goals of serving the Delta Community. Camp Tiny House addresses tiny house living, as a personal choice and as a solution to the societal housing crisis.

Delta Bay Foundation gratefully accepts the additional support of the owners and management of Park Delta Bay, an RV and Tiny House Resort community in the California Delta. Park Delta Bay hosts Camp Tiny House from year to year without charge to the Foundation as a service to the community. Although the Delta Bay Foundation is an independent California Not-for-Profit with 501(c)(3) exempt status, the Foundation acknowledges with sincere gratitude the tremendous help given to it by Park Delta Bay.

The Foundation also wishes to thank the members of the Park Delta Bay community, especially those opening their homes for tours during #CampTinyHouse2023.

Finally, now that we’ve had a successful #CampTinyHouse2023, we want to fervently thank all of the speakers and sponsors this year. We look forward to #CampTinyHouse2024!

Eric Chiu, of Park Delta Bay RV and Tiny House Resort

The Delta Bay Foundation expresses gratitude for its president, Eric Chiu.

Eugene Denson, Attorney and Activist

Nichole Norris, Investigative Reporter & Legal Activist

Joining us from Humboldt County, two noteworthy advocates will share their collective wisdom and insight in tandem.

Eugene Denson became an attorney as he entered his sixties. He describes his current 83-year-old self better than a third party could do:

“I’m the lawyer for Charles Garth and his YeeHaw community of about 30 residents, which [Humboldt] County has been trying to put out on the streets in tents for years. Presently the County is working with us to [devise] a way  to allow YeeHaw to survive. I don’t see any way except to pass an ordinance allowing Safe Shelters of any sort on private land with the permission of the land owner. In our rural county with its 40-acre parcels and abandoned RVs, buses, and trailers, this is possible. One Supervisor is supporting this idea, and Nichole Norris is going over my draft as I write it.  I have defended one tiny home stolen from my client by CalTrans and possibly gotten it back (not delivered yet).  I have written on Facebook and in Redhaired Black Belt, the Emerald Triangle’s on-line publication of all things cannabis and homeless, that I believe we must abandon much of the building and zoning codes concerning tiny, or single family one story homes, provide police, water, and sanitary services to homeless camps while better shelters become available as current “affordable housing” projects are too expensive, too few, and too far in the future.  Tiny homes are an elegant solution if not too expensive, and a path to ownership should be created.”

Nichole Norris considers herself “an investigative muckraking reporter”. She works with the Redheaded Blackbelt, has been a regular guest and host on KMUD Radio, and serves as the field producer for the “OG, Based on a True Story” documentary series. Born and raised in Red Bluff California, Nichole enriched her depth of understanding through extensive travel. She has studied and lived in Humboldt for twelve years, where she gained an in-depth understanding of the rank injustices endured by low-income rural communities while working for famed local attorney Eugene Denson. Nichole concurrently developed her own style of rigorous reporting while working under the wing of Humboldt’s famed grassroots reporter, Kym Kemp. Nichole’s reporting has led CALTrans compensating an unhoused person after confiscating his tiny home. She inspired a revision to the Humboldt County code that saved hundreds of structures from forced demolition.

Sally Hindman, Inter-faith justice leader from East Bay.

Inti Gonzalez, Youth Organizer/Creative Lead, Tiny Village Spirit

Sally Hindman has been engaged in interfaith work to create justice with and for homeless and unsheltered persons in the Bay Area for the last thirty-four years. She currently serves as the Coordinator of Tiny Village Spirit project, working with constituents and the interfaith religious community to promote tiny house villages serving unsheltered people around the Bay Area and the U.S. Among other endeavors, the Tiny Village Spirit project is building a youth tiny house village, farm and garden in Richmond, California. 

In 2007, Hindman founded Youth Spirit Artworks, a youth-led jobs training organization, where she served as Executive Director for fifteen years. In 2016, Youth Spirit leaders initiated efforts to create its Tiny House Empowerment Village, as part of a “100 Homes for Homeless Youth” Campaign, responding to the dire affordable housing crisis faced by young people locally. Hindman is a long-time Quaker; and received her M.A. in Theology and Art and her M. Div. from Pacific School of Religion.

Inti Gonzalez has been engaged in empowerment-focused organizing and creative work supporting unsheltered and underserved people for the last seven years. Inti led organizational efforts to build Youth Spirit Artwork’s Oakland Tiny House Empowerment Village. She brought the message of empowerment to events through public speaking, appearances at area congregations, depictions through her murals, and designing an array of materials for direct dissemination in the community. She served as a Leader for YSA’s Street Spirit homeless newspaper, facilitating the expressive voices of unhoused people through designing media covers and illustrations; and by creating powerful graphic arts images. At Tiny Village, Spirit Inti is a key organizer engaged in training our 12-member Youth Organizing Team in hard and soft skills, assisting with organizing volunteer “build” days, sharing with the media, and engaged in project management.

We also are honored to have had two other youth members of the Tiny House Village project who shared their powerful perspective.

Co-housing advocate and engineer-with-a-converted-van, Nicole Panditi.

Nikki Panditi – npanditi@protonmail.com

Nikki Panditi is a machinist, engineer, educator, and expert in Intentional Communities. She’s also been a speaker at Camp Tiny House for the past two years. She spends her time urban homesteading at a co-op she started with six friends, tinkering with motors and 3D printers, and getting in the water whenever possible. She’s passionate about alternative living and humane housing for all!

A lady with drive: Realtor and intentional-living advocate Molly McGee

Molly McGee – quantifiedmolly@gmail.com; journeytomybestself.com; ig @BigDreamLiving

Molly McGee (she/her) is a licensed real estate agent and intentional community enthusiast. She is currently developing a 200 person eco village and hosts monthly gatherings for people interested in collective living. As a lifelong Bay Area resident she is passionate about using simple solutions to solve our complex global problems and advocating for a better world. She is excited to use her background in policy and management to help others create the life of their dreams.

Dynamic Duo: Betsy Morris and Raines Cohen!

Betsy Morris and Raines Cohen returned to share their tremendous experience and undeniable wisdom on the twin themes of intentional living and co-housing. They will have a table with literature for your perusal, offering intriguing insights into such startling and alluring contemplations as ecovillages.

Camp Tiny House 2023 welcomed back last year’s surprise guest: Dani Hamilton

Daniella Hamilton (Retired) – comes to us with a wealth of education and experience as the one of the original guardians of housing and environmental concerns in California. With a B.A. Environmental Studies, UC Santa Barbara; a Masters in City and Regional Planning, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; and a Masters in Divinity, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Dani has seen the housing crisis from inside every system that California has.

She tells us, “My first planning job was as an affordable housing administrator. I was responsible for verifying the income of applicants to make sure they did not have too much money.” With a rueful look, she adds, “Of course, they also had to prove to the bank they had enough to pay their mortgage. There was a very thin slice of applicants who were both poor enough and rich enough to buy an affordable housing unit in Santa Barbara in 1985.” Didn’t we mention her decades of watching Californians struggle to attain a decent place to live and the respect of the system to encourage their own belief in their chances for success? You will learn much from her perspective.

Hamilton managed land use projects and programs for local, State, and federal agencies throughout California and the Western States. At the local level, she drafted ordinances and regulations as well as long term planning documents, involving the community stakeholders and lawmakers throughout, to meet long term housing goals in compliance with CEQA, Local Coastal Plans, as well as water purveyors and CalTrans. She managed the CEQA compliance for Southern California Edison and PG&E divestiture of 11 fossil fuel powered electric plants on the California Coast. Over the years, she helped non profit and for profit housing development through the permitting and construction phase to bring new affordable housing to California communities. Though now retired from employment in the field, Hamilton has vowed that she will continue to promote smart strategies to provide safe and affordable homes for people.

Tiny Living to The Rescue

Joining Tim Anderson were very special guest panelists:

the co-founders of The Village In Oakland

Anita De Asis Miralle aka Needa Bee 

Ayat Jalal Bryant

Anita De Asis Miralle aka Needa Bee is a mother, community activist, spoken word artist and chef. She was the Community Organizer for HERE Local 2 Restaurant and Hotel Workers’ Union; the former Executive Co-Director of both Critical Resistance Youth Force and Raperations Records; the former Program Manager of Mandela Arts Center. She was the founder of several organizations including Young Oakland, Healthy Hoodz, and 510Day. She is the co-founder and interim executive director of The Village in Oakland, volunteering in general with Village in Oakland. When she is not engaging in community work or creating art, the legendary Lumpia Lady of Oakland.

Ayat Jalal Bryant was born in San Francisco in 1973, to a Black Seminole father and a Blackfoot mother who were active members of the Black Panther Party. Ayat’s brings a distinct Black-Indigenous voice rooted in liberation and mysticism to his leadership at the Village in Oakland. Through art, Ayat came to understand what it means to be an Indigenous-Black man, opened his mind to view the world through a better lens, and built-up his strength against the world. He is one of the co-founders of First They Came For the Homeless, a co-founder if the historical protest camp in Berkeley known as Here There, and the former President of the Florida Black Historical Research Project. He is the lead builder of tiny homes and curbside community design with The Village, sits on the Village Leadership Council, is a founding member of Cardboard & Concrete Collective, and is the current President and Founder of the Florida Black Seminole Maroon Resurrection Project. Ayat also goes by “Yahyo”, as a visual and literary Artist, and is a holder of Maroon Culture/History, a tradition in deep alignment with he vision, mission and work of the Village.

AND JOINING THE OUTLAW PANEL FROM SO-CAL:

 Heather Stewart is a mixed media artist and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles.

Stewart has traveled the world to create interactive art installations, produce installations for other artists, paint murals, and build custom pieces that range from furniture to film sets to large sculptures. In 2013, she co-founded Boxouse, a company that converted shipping containers into tiny off-grid houses, in response to both the environmental and housing crises.

Since then she has created many community warehouse spaces in the Bay area and Los Angeles.

In 2018, she founded a community art collective and workshop where her current fabrication company,  Fatty & Co was started. Her most recent sculpture was part of artist Adrian Landon’s “ Wild Horses of the American West” project, a 2022 Burning Man project featuring 16 artists from around the world.

We proudly welcomed the Pacifica Tiny Homes model

Special announcement! Pacifica Tiny Homes brought a gorgeous model to #CampTinyHouse2023! Visitors, vendors, and volunteers alike enjoyed touring the fabulous home! Park Delta Bay has five residents of #TinyHouseRow in Pacifica houses, so you know we love them!

Special Thanks To:

RETURNING SPONSORS: PRECISIONTEMP!

We were honored that PrecisionTemp returned as a sponsor of #CampTinyHouse2023. Check out a review in real time of a PrecisionTemp on-demand hot-water heater in a tiny house on wheels at Park Delta Bay! Thank you to the folks at this fabulous company for their perennial support of Camp Tiny House!