Maker Faire Bay Area 2023
Simply Shelter and the microShelter
Home: California, United States
We, at Simply Shelter, are a Bay Area grassroots non-profit organization. We enable people facing urgent housing insecurities to obtain safe shelter and support. We bring together volunteers like yourself along with fellow service providers to construct and provide microShelters for those experiencing homelessness. During our microShelter Build Days, a wonderfully diverse group of adults and children join forces, bringing a wide range of experiences in order to expand the possibilities for those in need. We invite you to visit our microShelters and learn about the progress of our growing community!
https://SimplyShelter.org
Additional Project Photos
Maker
The Simply Shelter Team
Simply Shelter is a growing grass-roots community who enable people facing urgent housing insecurities to be safely sheltered and supported. We teach each other how to build microShelters in order to offer dignity, and wellbeing for those in need.
https://SimplyShelter.orgWhat Inspired You to Make This?
In 2021, Simply Shelter’s Executive Director Jay was inspired by an assignment in a self-development class called the Landmark Forum. The assignment challenged the participants to invent a project that would contribute to the world while involving significant teamwork. As a NASA Aerospace Engineer, Jay’s life had been full of design and development projects. As an adult, Jay enjoyed solving technical problems at work and through his hobbies of building race cars, motorcycles, and renovating his historic home. In 2020, he became aware of the growing number of people who were sleeping on the streets in his hometown of San Jose. Jay felt compelled to start doing something to help them so he began distributing groceries to the local homeless camps using his motorcycle and as many duffle bags as he could carry. After a year of doing this, Jay formed relationships with the people he served while learning more about their situation. Jay realized that they needed more than just food; they needed shelter. That’s when he remembered an online interview with Alekz Londos that he had seen. Alekz had designed and built a very small shelter for the homeless. Jay was impressed by Alekz’s idea and contacted him to discuss the desire to build shelters on a large scale while creating communities for the tenants. This was the beginning of Simply Shelter. Today, Jay, Alekz, and a growing community of passionate volunteers are expanding what is possible in the world of shelter through the transformation of housing insecurities. Come visit us and join our mission!
