If you are new here, you may be wondering, who or what is HOWA? I’m glad you asked! HOWA is the initials for Homes on Wheels Alliance, which is an IRS approved, 501c3 non-profit charity that my wonderful friend Suanne Carlson and I co-founded in September, 2018.
It’s main focus are people who are on a fixed income that is not adequate to provide them with traditional housing, one example are those on a very low Social Security or other retirement income that isn’t enough to pay for the very high cost of housing in this country. Another example are people who can’t find work, or are working but at such a low wage that they can’t afford the very high cost of rent or home ownership.
Sadly, we have become a high-rent, low-wage nation and there are many people who fall into this category.
It’s mission is to help those people and to prevent them from falling into homelessness by inspiring and educating them about living in vehicles as an alternative lifestyle. If they can eliminate the extremely high cost of housing, they can live much higher quality of lives on the incomes they do have.
Then, once people do become nomads living in a vehicle, we work to build a community they can enter and build a high quality of life. Some of the work we do includes:
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- Purchasing minivans, making Tiny Homes out of them, then donating them to people on the verge of becoming Homeless.
- Hosting events where Nomads can learn, build community and make friends. A prime example of this is the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous.
- An Emergency Fund for nomads where nomads in need can contact us and get financial assistance during an emergency such as a vehicle breakdown or health crisis.
- Hosting Caravans that travel from place to place through the year and new nomads can join them at any time and travel with them. We have found this to be essential to overcome the difficulties of entering nomadic life by relieving people’s fears and loneliness.
- And many other one-of-a-kind services to nomads.
If you would like to volunteer for HOWA, or support us financially with a donation, please go to our website to learn more: