VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: A Tiny Home for Good expands to help Syracuse’s homeless population
Anna McCusker (Reporter): Every Tuesday morning, A Tiny Home for Good’s team and local community members leave the office on South Ave and walk through the neighborhoods where its residents live. For case managers, like Eliesha Pepple, it’s a chance to check in with residents and see how they’re doing in their homes while getting comfortable in the neighborhood
Eliesha Pepple (Case Manager, A Tiny Home for Good): The walks are great. They just come along with us, they walk with us wherever we go and come back for snacks. And I think some of them just come for the snacks but…
McCusker: The nonprofit, founded in 2014, provides affordable homes and personalized case management to people who have experienced homelessness in Syracuse. For those who get a home, the impact goes beyond simply having a place to sleep.
Rhea Holmes (Resident, A Tiny Home for Good): To have an address. To have a place to call home. There’s no words to describe that feeling.
McCusker: Rhea Holmes was living on her husband’s grave for eight months before a police officer connected her with Eliesha.
Holmes: He said you’re never going to sleep on that ground again. It’s like the tears just came even harder.
McCusker: While A Tiny Home for Good has provided many homes, the need continues to grow.
Pepple: I get probably up to 5 inquiries every day. There are a lot of individuals who are unhoused right now.
McCusker: A Tiny Home for Good is looking to make a bigger dent in that need this year. That’s why they’re planning on adding 23 new homes, some of which will be apartment units on the second floor of Saint Paul’s Episcopal downtown. Some of the new units will open this November. The apartments and the rest of the homes won’t open until October 2027.
Pepple: I feel like 23 is not enough, but it’s a nice bite out of what we can and what we are able to do.
McCusker: And, in the meantime, A Tiny Home for Good will continue being more than just a landlord to its tenants.
Holmes: Family! Family! Connection. Can’t ask for more than that.
McCusker: In Syracuse, Anna McCusker, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — A Tiny Home for Good is a nonprofit, founded in 2014, that provides affordable housing and personalized case management to those who have experienced homelessness in Syracuse.
The organization doesn’t just rent these homes. It provides consistent support to help tenants become stable and successful once they have a place to live.
Rhea Holmes became a tiny home resident in 2025. After her husband died, Holmes lost her home. She lived on her husband’s grave in Oakwood Cemetery for eight months before Syracuse police officer Jamie Pastorello connected her with Eliesha Pepple.
“To have an address. To have a place to call home. There’s no words to describe that feeling,” Holmes said.
A lack of affordable housing is a growing issue within the region. The Housing and Homeless Coalition of Central New York reports that at least 1,192 people experience homelessness on any given night in Central New York.
“I get probably up to five inquiries every day. Weekly I get 10-20. There are a lot of individuals who are unhoused right now,” Eliesha Pepple, one of the case managers at A Tiny Home for Good, said.
To help combat this issue, A Tiny Home for Good is adding 23 new homes to its portfolio in the next year. Ten of those will be one-unit apartments on the second floor of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church downtown, which will specifically be for men ages 55 and older.
“I feel like 23 is not enough, but it’s a nice bite out of what we can and what we are able to do,” Pepple said.
Seven out of 23 of the homes will open this November. The apartments and remaining homes won’t be completed until October 2027.